Football Book Review Thread

[Tony C]

Looking up thread I mentioned Steven Scraggs's book about the ECWC. It's unlikely to win any end of year prizes but it contains a wealth of "God, I'd forgotten all about him/them/that" moments which made it very enjoyable.

[Tony C]

As an aside I'd like to give praise to a couple of shorter works of football writing that I've discovered this year, although written previously. Namely Daniel Gray 'Black boots...' and 'Saturday 3.00 pm' both of which are unashamedly nostalgic works and certainly an antidote to the harsher realities of the game as displayed by the likes of Goldblatt or Conn. And Gray, it must be said, is a wonderful writer with a glorious turn of phrase. The quality of his prose alone is worth the purchase.

Apologies if these have been mentioned elsewhere in this lengthy thread.

[Flynnie]

Looking up thread I mentioned Steven Scraggs's book about the ECWC. It's unlikely to win any end of year prizes but it contains a wealth of "God, I'd forgotten all about him/them/that" moments which made it very enjoyable.

It looks awesome, probably going to buy it soon.

It also led me to find that, unless Amazon's search engine is really bad, there is no book about the UEFA Cup/Europa League in English anywhere. Obviously the odd book about particular campaigns, but if we're digging up European competition hauntology, a Fairs Cup-UEFA Cup history would be a great book.

[danielmak]

As an aside I'd like to give praise to a couple of shorter works of football writing that I've discovered this year, although written previously. Namely Daniel Gray 'Black boots...' and 'Saturday 3.00 pm' both of which are unashamedly nostalgic works and certainly an antidote to the harsher realities of the game as displayed by the likes of Goldblatt or Conn. And Gray, it must be said, is a wonderful writer with a glorious turn of phrase. The quality of his prose alone is worth the purchase.

Apologies if these have been mentioned elsewhere in this lengthy thread.

I've been working my way through my second straight book about doing the 92 in a year (I posted a review of 92 Pies above) but I've interrupted my read of Aizelwood's book multiple times. I'll write a more thorough review when I finish in case anyone wants to travel back in time, but one reason I keep taking a break is that he just doesn't seem to enjoy the experience very much. I get that there's a lot wrong with football and I understand that from the US it's easier to suggest that people just ignore those problems with football and focus on the enjoyment, but unless you work in football, it's not something anyone has to do. We choose being a football fan and the degree to which that fandom takes shape, so I'll have to move these books by Gray (which are sitting in an Amazon cart) to the front. I do find the "football used to be great until big money destroyed it" nostalgia to be as annoying as the complaints about football but usually that explicit nostalgia appears in the introduction and then the books themselves focus on the topic at hand whereas the steady complaining about football (as features in Aizelwood's book) provides very little enjoyable relief.

[imp]

Woodward book review here.

[Tony C]

Excellent review again Imp. Will get the book asap.

[danielmak]

I wrote earlier in the thread about finishing John Aizelwood's, Playing at Home. He writes about doing the 92 during one season (1997-1998). I don't get the sense that many folks on this thread are digging back through older books like this. I assume books were read when the books came out or missed and that was that, but I'll share my thoughts just in case someone is feeling nostalgic about the late 90s or interested in some level of groundhopping. As I've noted before, I like the blend of travel writing, a focus on football culture, city life, and football itself. So books like this one tick those boxes. Playing at Home is the third book in a row for me that fits this blend (other two reviewed above). The writing in this book is much, much better than the other two. It's basically like reading a collection of well-written match of the months from WSC but with a little less focus on the football and a bit more idiosyncratic descriptions of the various cities/towns. I constantly interrupted the book, which I only read on my commute to/from work, with other books/music magazines/fanzines because 376 pages of match of the month style reporting can get a little tiresome. Also, as I noted in my last post, he seems to be a bit grumpy about the task of completing the 92 even though nobody made him do this. It's not until the last four or five chapters that he seems to appreciate the journey and the individual experiences as part of that total journey.

There are two interesting moves that provide a thread through the book: He loves to chart the types of coaches the teams use. I know nothing about coaches, but I find this quirky move interesting. Usually he dedicates a sentence or two so it's not a big part of each chapter. Second, he consistently visits pubs before and after each match, which helps shape a sense of the culture of each city/town at that point in British history. And each chapter usually includes some reflection on the historical/economic development (and often downfall) of the city where the game is taking shape.

One area that could have been better developed, and perhaps it was my stop/start read that affected my sense of this, is that I didn't have a good understanding of where the teams stood in their respective leagues. After reading the book, I can tell you that Arsenal won the title in the top flight and Burnley avoided relegation from League Two. The other books I read and posted about above provided a much clearer narrative about the various standings as those writers visited the grounds.

I'll take a break from these types of narratives for a bit and get into one of Daniel Gray's books and then go to Charlie Connelly's London Fields, which is at the top of the pile.

[Giggler]

Playing At Home is actually one of my favourite books. I lent it to a colleague (Richard Askam, who occasionally pops up on Final Score as well as his job on North West Tonight, fans of minor local celebrity namedropping) back in 2007 but he left it on a European trip. I started getting pangs about wanting to read it again a few years later so I tracked a copy down.

Aizlewood and his fellow Q writers in the mid-90s were in the main the people who made me want to write for a living, so I've always liked his style. There are a lot of aspects to the book that haven't aged particularly well but I think it's a fascinating study of the country at a very crucial time in its history: the death of Diana and the throwing open of emotions. I constantly wonder about the people he encounters too; Elaine after the Tranmere game will be in her 40s now, so will the two girls on the hen party in Lincoln. Whatever became of them?

[danielmak]

Playing At Home is actually one of my favourite books. I lent it to a colleague (Richard Askam, who occasionally pops up on Final Score as well as his job on North West Tonight, fans of minor local celebrity namedropping) back in 2007 but he left it on a European trip. I started getting pangs about wanting to read it again a few years later so I tracked a copy down.

Aizlewood and his fellow Q writers in the mid-90s were in the main the people who made me want to write for a living, so I've always liked his style. There are a lot of aspects to the book that haven't aged particularly well but I think it's a fascinating study of the country at a very crucial time in its history: the death of Diana and the throwing open of emotions. I constantly wonder about the people he encounters too; Elaine after the Tranmere game will be in her 40s now, so will the two girls on the hen party in Lincoln. Whatever became of them?

I meant to mention the Diana context, which provides an important frame in the early chapters. Then discussion of Diana disappears and comes back in one of the last few chapters. As I noted, and you highlight Giggler, he does a good job making some of the people he meets come alive that has been missing from other books that I've read so far that focus on ground hopping, whereas books that focus on following one club during a season (Verona book, West Brom book) flesh out those characters. Obviously that's easier when following a single club and interacting with many of the same people versus showing up to a ground one time. Aizelwood also describes fan banter in a way that mirrors what I used to hear on Danny Baker's show (I think about Baker's description of a Milwall fan that Baker nicknamed Hassle 'Em because the guy would always yell, "Hassle 'em, hassle 'em). Aizelwood is good at spotting and describing those types of characters.

[ale]

Read book at time and dont dispute any of above. But he was really critical of NUFC in the chapter on game at SJP-Southampton from memory-which has always coloured my judgement on its merits. Also seem to recall he used his visit to Sunderland to rub in his dislike of Newcastle.

[Giggler]

He likes the bridge though, ale.

There were very few places he actually liked. I worked out he was 32/33 when he wrote it when he comes across as considerably older.

One of the places he liked was Stockport. I met and moved in with a woman who lived around the corner from Edgeley Park and was looking forward to living in the area based on what he wrote. I hated it there.

[Foot of Astaire's]

I just finished the Andy Morrison autobiography. Proper warts and all stuff and a good reminder of footy before City went into hyper space. My only criticism was the final chapter, which he used to promote himself to any Chairmen that might be browsing in Waterstones by begging for a go at managing. Wiki tells me he's currently managing in Wales.

[Foot of Astaire's]

• Just about to start on this baby

[danielmak]

I just finished Daniel Gray's Hatters, Railwaymen and Knitters. I assume this was reviewed upthread when it came out and in WSC. I'm on the fence about this one. It fits the general approach that I tend to enjoy in a football book: travel, culture, fans. But it's a little stiff compared to the past few that I have read and reviewed in this thread. There are some recurring moments that I really like, most notably people seemed to range from curious to angry when Gray makes written notes about his experiences. And I like how he returns to themes about opportunity and loss within different English towns related to social class and ethnicity as those identity issues can be seen in football. As I noted above, the book feels a little stiff at times, which is not necessarily on Gray; this problem exists for many people as they write about history. So, those historical parts work less for me than the contemporary parts or the sections where he's able to use character development (himself or others) to make the past come alive in a more literary manner. The biggest irritant for me is his use of feminine nouns when describing places and things. Trains, stadiums, cities are not male or female; they are things. I'll come back to his next two books after I work through some other stuff already in the pile of books in my apartment but hopefully he did away with this move in his second two books.

[White No Sugar]

Read book at time and dont dispute any of above. But he was really critical of NUFC in the chapter on game at SJP-Southampton from memory-which has always coloured my judgement on its merits. Also seem to recall he used his visit to Sunderland to rub in his dislike of Newcastle.

I like him already.

[danielmak]

I should add to what I wrote in my review of Gray's book that I didn't realize he is the host of the WSC podcast until reading issue 396 of WSC. I really like him in this role--he both moves the podcast along and also adds a lot to the quality of each episode.

[Satchmo Distel]

I enjoyed Mike Ingham's memoir: very moving personal account of Heysel as well as incisive discussions of various England campaigns (he argues strongly that England should have pulled out of Mexico '86 after Heysel).

https://www.bookdepository.com/After.../9781913208080

[Anton Gramscescu]

I have finally got round to starting David Goldblatt's The Age of Football and I find it almost unreadable. I loved the Ball is Round, but this is just joyless. It's encyclopedic. Which is fine if you are writing an encyclopedia (or in the case, a continent-by-continent Rough Guide to Football since 2000), but...I dunno, I don't think I want to read an encyclopedia.

Brilliantly researched, obviously. Meticulously thorough coverage (at least of Africa and Middle East, which is as far as I've got) and occasionally very insightful. Just not in the least bit fun.

[Satchmo Distel]

The Cemetery End: http://groundtastic.co.uk/thecemeteryend.html

[Giggler]

The Cemetery End: http://groundtastic.co.uk/thecemeteryend.html

I bought my copy this month. I couldn’t not, given a stand at Gigg is the book’s title. There are some great pictures in it but there are also some that shouldn’t have been blown up to the size they have been. Some of the resolutions can’t handle it.

[Giggler]

Kieran Maguire positioned mine facing out from his bookcase while he was talking about City on telly today.

[Jon]

Excellent work, Giggler.

[imp]

Having missed a few editions of WSC - have there been any decent football books out this year? If there have, they've passed me by. I'm looking for stuff to review, so preferably books that would appeal to an international readership.

According to my industry sources, "no one's buying football books any more". That industry source would be my agent telling me that my latest proposal is in the bin. I don't know whether he means publishers or readers aren't buying football books, but either way the statement's too depressing to want to find out the answer. Probably both.

[Uros Predic]

I hate self promotion, but my own book was released in print in late April this year (having been initially self published as a eBook last year), and finding anywhere to review it is proving difficult.
It's available from most retailers, but I'd be happy to send you a copy for review Imp. Just send me a message if you're interested.

Rather than bang on about it myself, it's just been reviewed by Martin Cloake for The Football Pink, here.

[imp]

Uros, you should absolutely not be shy about banging on about it yourself. First, I had not heard of your book, and I'm someone whose job partly consists of reviewing football books for a living. You've written the fucker, now own it! Otherwise it will sink without trace. (I'm writing this as someone who also finds it painful to self-promote, but there are limits to being low profile. No one else will do it for you unless you're so well known - like Wilson and Goldblatt, say - that your publisher is going to employ someone to do that work for you.)

Second, you're a regular on this board and, in my experience, if anyone on here has a problem with regulars promoting their own work, I've yet to hear them say it. It's another thing if someone comes barrelling in and says, 'Read my new book!' as has happened once or twice in the past. Even then, I don't think anyone resents a more low-key approach to a new board user (or their mates) making us aware of their work.

Third, I will definitely take a look at your book, though in the meantime I've downloaded Robert O'Connor's Bread and Circuses. If I think it has appeal for US readers then I'll either do a standalone review or include it in a round-up at the end of the year. Judging by the FP review, I don't see why it shouldn't have appeal for a universal football readership.

Finally, congratulations on writing and publishing a book - best of luck!