Product Description

A combination of personal history, reportage and opinion, author Nick Varley presents a portrait of football at the end of the millennium.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1176999 in Books
• Published on: 1999-05-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Nick Varley attempts to get beneath the skin of the greatest game on the planet in his latest book, Parklife.

The book is subtitled "a search for the heart of football" and that is exactly what it is. Whether Varley actually manages to find the heart of football is ultimately left open but his dissection of the game and all the trimmings that go with it makes for a fascinating read.

The author's search begins during a period in which English football reached its nadir; a time when football was the game of the drunken lout, where gangs of youths calling themselves fans rampaged in and around dilapidated stadia.

The violent exploits of the hooligan had blighted the good name of English football over a period of 20 years and from the heady days of the 1960s--a decade in which England won the World Cup for the first and only time and Glasgow Celtic and Manchester United pioneered the British path in the European Cup--the sport fell into a downward spiral of riots, pitch invasions and ultimately, deaths.

Varley looks at the Hillsborough disaster of 1989 and the effects-- largely positive--that the resulting inquiry into the game by Lord Justice Taylor brought about in the following decade.

The advent of all-seater stadia, the metamorphosis of footballers from a mere player on the pitch into international personalities with a pop star status and the huge revenue injected into the sport by television deals are among the factors credited with helping the game develop into what it is today.

Varley's informal look at the world's most popular spectator sport is told through the eyes of child, a fan and a writer, and this is what gives the book a personal touch that makes it an interesting and enjoyable read for football's thinking supporter.

From the Author
Get in touch
Below are some more reviews of the book which I hope outline what it's about a bit more. But I'm always keen to get more reaction, so if anyone wants to give me their opinion or contact me my e-mail address is:

Reviews:

***** "Deserves to be a classic . . . If you want to understand what's happened to football and why, and if you want to be entertained on the way, Parklife repays the effort." FourFourTwo

***** "A fascinating account of football in the 90s . . . Varley's book is the Ronaldo of footie books, hitting the target every time while avoiding tortuous football analogies, like this one." Heat

"Well written, well argued and witty - in fact, for such a serious subject, it's damn near flawless." Fly Me To The Moon, the Daily Telegraph's Fanzine of the Year.

Customer Reviews

Good in parts
The Hillsborough chapter is gripping but the rest of this book is mixed. Overall, a readable enough, light book containing an original, middle-class view of football.

Excellent Read
I really enjoyed reading this book. It interestingly discusses the evolution of English football since the early 90s, showing how the Hillsborough disaster and the subsequent Taylor report were a catalyst for the changes that have occurred and the journey the game has travelled since. The focus is on the 'business' of football (as opposed to what happenned on the pitch) from the FA level, to the lower level clubs and right down to individual fans. This sounds heavy but the author uses personal stories to illustrate the changes making the the book a very enjoyable read.

The best football book I've read
This an excellent book about football which looks at how the game has developed since the hooligan days of the 70's and 80's to the much improved stadia and glamour of the Premiership. It also exmaines the feeling amongst many fans that the game has lost some of its soul in this transition as well as looking at the continued problems of football violence particularly with regard to the England team abroad. There is also brilliant analysis of the Hillsborough tragedy which will have every decent football fan seething with rage at both the behaviour of the authorities and the tabloid press. Get it, it knocks spots off bloody 'Fever Pitch'.