ANYONE looking for an acceptable Christmas present for the Bury supporter in their life could do worse than head for their local bookshop with three new titles of special interest to Gigg Lane fans.

Top of the pile comes ITV sports presenter Gary Imlach's My Father And Other Working Class Football Heroes (Yellow Jersey, £15.99) which this week won the coveted William Hill Sports Book of the Year prize.

It is the story of his father, Stewart Imlach, who plied his trade with the Shakers during 1952 and 1953 before going on to be a Scottish international and first division player with Nottingham Forest.

Imlach was one of the generation of footballers whose career preceded the end of the maximum wage who were, basically, serfs owned by their clubs and had to take jobs during the close season, often working alongside the fans who worshipped them on a Saturday afternoon.

It also tells the tale of Gary's aim to get a posthumous cap for his father who played four times for Scotland during a time when the only Scottish FA caps issued were for the Home internationals.

One of English football's all-time greats, Colin Bell, has had his biography, entitled Colin Bell: Reluctant Hero (Mainstream, £15.99), written by BBC GMR's City reporter Ian Cheeseman.

Bell captained the Shakers at the age of 19 before signing for Manchester City in a deal worth £45,000 in March 1966.

He became a City legend and was voted their greatest ever all-time player.

His superb midfield running earned him the nickname 'Nijinsky' but he also had an eye for a goal and in just short of 500 games for the club he scored 152 first class goals while turning out 48 times for England.

Another Shakers favourite, albeit one that played his football at a lower level than Bell, is striker Phil Stant whose autobiography Ooh, Aah, Stantona (Blake Publishing, £17.99) is now in the shops.

'Sergeant Stant' a former soldier in the SAS became a cult hero at almost every club he played thanks to a terrific goalscoring record and superb rapport with the fans.