Product Description

Roddy Doyle's account of the Republic of Ireland's triumphant journey through Italia '90 is just one of the many first-class pieces in this anthology of original football writing. Contributors include: Roddy Doyle, Harry Pearson, Harry Ritchie, Ed Horton, Olly Wicken, D.J. Taylor, Huw Richards, Nick Hornby, Chris Pierson, Matt Nation, Graham Brack, Don Watson and Giles Smith. 'A new kind of football writing developed - passionate, disrespectful, self-mocking, yet steeped in personal bias. In book form, young writers such as Nick Hornby and Pete Davies became to the New Football Writing what Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson had been to the New Journalism' Terence Blacker, Sunday Times

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #135175 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
'A new kind of football writing developed - passionate, disrespectful, self-mocking, yet steeped in personal bias. In book form, young writers such as Nick Hornby and Pete Davies became to the New Football Writing what Tom Wolfe and Hunter S. Thompson had been to the New Journalism' Terence Blacker, Sunday Times

About the Author
Nick Hornby was born in 1957 and worked as a teacher before becoming a full time writer. He lives in north London.

Customer Reviews

Enjoyable enough
I was really looking forward to reading this and in the end it was enjoyable enough, although disapointing in places. But I suppose that is one of the pitfalls of collections, naturally some of the stories are going to be better than others.

There are some crackers in here, Harry Pearson and Olly Wicken are both hilarious, Giles Smith's obsession with Chelsea programmes is wryly amusing and Don Watson's adventures with mid-70s Leeds cause more than just me to reminisce about the teenage escapades had while following your team, no matter whho they are.

Nick Hornby and Roddy Doyle, easily the two most lauded writers in the book, both appear to be on auto-pilot. Doyle writes about the 1990 World Cup, which he has already done to better effect in The Van, while Hornby's work is saved by the subject matter.

It really is a book for football fans, as well as empathising with the aforementioned teenage adventures or programme collecting, there will be plenty who find something in common with Oxford United's money troubles, Norwich's lack of recognition for their success, or just a plain lack of success from Bristol to Raith.

Simply the most entertaining football book out there!
A collection of really enjoyable accounts of each authors favourite season following their club.

Hilarious, interesting, clever and nostalgic. I have read my now well-thumbed copy several times over.

Covers Chelsea, Watford, a hapless season at Cambridge Utd, Middlesbrough, Rep of Ireland (Roddy Doyle), an Oxford season under Maxwell etc etc.

As each short story is individual, you can dip in and out of it too. This book never fails to make me smile - highly recommended!