Product Description

There have been football books which have told their tale through the partisan heart of a besotted fan, and those that dissected their subject through the scientific mind of an objective writer. But rarely does one fuse the blind passion of a lifelong supporter with the cold eye of an award-winning journalist in the way 43 Years With The Same Bird does.

That bird is the Liver Bird, and on the surface, this book is a pitch-side view of the entire modern era of Britain's most successful football club. It is Brian Reade's take on the extraordinary stories behind the 48 trophies he has seen Liverpool lift since watching them en route to their first-ever FA Cup win in 1965, right through to the Champions League defeat in Athens in 2007. It takes in all of the big nights that propelled the club to five European Cups, three UEFA Cups, 12 titles, countless domestic cup triumphs, bitter failures, the tragic disasters in Sheffield and Brussels, as well as the barren years of the late 60s and the 90s.

But the book goes far deeper than that. It's about how football allowed a father who was separated from his son to forge a precious bond. How a football club can make a city that is dying on its knees keep believing in itself. How you should never, as a professional, get too close to your heroes. How being part of a disaster at a football match (Hillsborough) can leave you a mental wreck, unwilling to carry on, but how witnessing a miracle on a football pitch (Istanbul) makes you realise that no matter how low you sink, you should never give in.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #99513 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

The Mirror
'This is one man's brilliantly incisive and profoundly entertaining analysis of exactly what being a Liverpool FC fan means...'

The Kop
'two things you'll feel more than anything though when you read 43 Years with the Same Bird - proud and privileged.'

East Anglian Daily Times
'It's a wonderful insight into one man's passion, written in a measured yet endearing way.'

Customer Reviews

Great title, Great book !!
The book is written by journalist and football fan, not in any particular order, with a history of working with the Liverpool Post, and sometimes upsetting people with a biast view!!
True Liverpool fans will remember the inspirational words that often came from Shankly`s lips (god rest his soul),` how if he were a bin man he would be the best bin man ever, and the streets of Liverpool would be the cleanest in the world`. This book talks from the same page as that. Its both a cronicle of the rollercoaster that is football and an inspiational read at the same time, some of the memories will lift you, and some will break your heart, but one thing is for sure, you will be touched by the Authors writing.
Some of the strongest chapters follow the darker moments in our glorious history and the are truly heart wrenching. He writes with bitterness about the years of Souness as manager, and who can blame him for that!!
As a long term Kopite I eat and sleep football, and read it when I`m not doing one of the other. There have been some great books about Liverpool over the years and this is among them. I read this on holiday with another book set at Anfield. Soft Target by Conrad Jones, is a fictional thriller set in Liverpool, terrorism and football combined it was shocking....but great reading. The new bio by the great god `Rush` is another excellent read, as is `Gangs of Liverpool ` by Maca.
Give this `43 years with the same bird.Liverpudlian Love Affair a read...you wont be dissapointed

There is more to supporting a football team than football
Starting from the day in 1965 when his father took him to see Liverpool play at Bolton, Brian Reade has been a Liverpool supporter. In the 43 years since then although he as witnessed many highs - 47 trophies, which supporters of most other clubs can only dream about - but also extreme lows in the 80's with the tragedies at Heysel and Hillsborough.

The books strongest chapters are regarding these two events and their aftermath. Reade passionately describes the guilt and shame felt by Liverpool supporters after Heysel in 1985 and also the anger felt by these same people after the authorities attempted to make them the scapegoats for the disaster at Hillsborough four years later.

When it comes to football, Brian Reade writes as a Liverpool fan and his views are therefore very biased and unobjective. Whilst this makes some of his recollections entertaining, there were too many times when I, as a Bradford City fan, found it a bit annoying when he moans about 'a bad season' after Liverpool had only finished third or fourth in the league! We should be so lucky.

Making up for this though are the excellent chapters about Reades meeting the charismatic Bill Shankly and a very poignant one where he interviews Bob Paisley just as Alzheimers was starting to take a hold. Also worth reading are the bile filled chapters about ex-Chairman Noel White and Graeme Souness, who Reade concedes was a brilliant player for Liverpool but a lousy manager.

Although I suspect that to obtain maximum enjoyment from this book the reader would have to be a Liverpool supporter but anybody that has followed a football team through good times and bad will be able to empathise with much of it and therefore enjoy it. All except Everton and Manchester United fans, that is.

a great book written by a fan for fans
After having received this book as a Christmas present amongst the usual Christmas fayre that an exiled scouser usually gets (Liverpool FC , The Beatles stuff) I decided to read this excellent book. If "putdownability" is a quality measure I read it cover to cover in a day.

Reade charts the history of the great club from 1965 to present day, intertwining the clubs success or tragedies with his own. The books foundation is the authors' insight and metaphoric love affair with Shankley and the great red men through to the lows and highs of the clubs history.

The chapter on Heysel and Rome provide the most honest and poignant assessment what happened in 1985 I have ever read. A must for all football fans...particularly Liverpool fans.