TWO new York City Knights books will be launched at the club's shop on Saturday morning (10am-12pm).

Andy Atkinson, the BBC Radio York commentator on the Knights since 2011 and a lifelong fan, is releasing 'Dark Days and Bright Knights' and 'Knights to Remember' at the LNER Community Stadium.

'Dark Days and Bright Knights' is an irreverent take on York's 2021 season, in which James Ford's side reached the final of the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup, eventually losing out 41-34 to Featherstone Rovers, at Wembley Stadium, the club's first appearance at the national ground since 1931.

The book follows a similar tone to 'Knights and Days', which covered the 2018 Betfred League One title-winning side and is also being re-issued.

'Knights to Remember' meanwhile is a comprehensive overview of every single player to represent the Knights since their reformation in 2002.

The books were around three years in the making, Atkinson explains.

"The latest two books were supposed to be one book and I started those around spring 2020," he said.

“Once it went to the publisher, they said ‘This is going to come out at around 600 pages, it’s too much for one book’.

“It then took time to turn it into two books that worked. But we got there in the end."

Discussing 'Dark Days and Bright Knights', Atkinson said: “That picks up from when the 2020 season which was stopped early because of coronavirus and in that 2021 season the Knights went to Wembley.

“If somebody said to me at 15 years of age that one day you’d commentate at Wembley, I’d have said ‘You’re mad’. To go there was a great day.”

'Knights to Remember' stemmed from York asking various members of the media for their greatest all-time Knights 17 during the early stages of lockdown, to which Atkinson contributed.

He said: “I looked at the other contributions and thought that there was room for a book and to go back through the seasons and write about every player who has played a competitive game in a York City Knights shirt.

“They’re all in there and it’s pretty comprehensive. Even I looked back and I looked at certain names and thought, ‘I don’t remember him at all’."

As well as providing records of some York's more recent history, the books "contain a lot of myself," said Atkinson.

"They're about what happens to me on matchdays and the quirky stories of climbing up telegraph poles to try and get radio signals at away games.

“Things never go as they should. There’s always something in the day of note when you’re out commentating.”