Everyone Must Leave

An IRA bomb scare stopped the Grand National. Nigel Payne and Dominic Hart reveal the trauma of the stable lads who refused to leave the course, tears of trainer Jenny Pitman as she was forced to abandon her horses and vivid accounts of people who refused to bow to the IRA

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It was just like any day of the Martell Grand National; Aintree was buzzing, 60,000 excited punters were preparing for the big race, and the parade ring was filling up. Then came the moment everyone feared - an IRA bomb scare. The biggest evacuation in the history of sport was underway and a series of extraordinary events was unfolding. In the next few hours, and until Monday evening, Nigel Payne was part of the taskforce attempting to hold together Aintree and ensure the race could be run again. This book tells how the nation's top jockeys escaped the chaos around them; of how Liverpool threw its doors open to the thousands left stranded; the drama of the evacuation; the parties that night in the city; the politicians, the celebrities and the royalty and how they were protected; the drama of the following day; and the eventual running of the race on the Monday afternoon.
The book reveals the hidden dramas of the stable lads who refused to leave the course, the tears of trainer Jenny Pitman as she was forced to abandon her horses, the incredible police operation detonated by that warning phone call, and the vivid accounts of those people in Aintree and the surrounding streets as they defiantly refused to bow to the IRA.