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Whats the best FOOTBALL book you have ever read ?
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- Start date
I'm midway through...
Hatters, Railwaymen and Knitters (2013) by Daniel Gray
I'm not saying it's the greatest footie book I've ever read (that's probably Fever Pitch or Left Foot Forward) but it's a very enjoyable read
About Hatters, Railwaymen and Knitters
Daniel Gray is about to turn thirty. Like any sane person, his response is to travel to Luton, Crewe and Hinckley. After a decade's exile in Scotland, he sets out to reacquaint himself with England via what he considers its greatest asset: football.
Watching teams from the Championship (or Division Two as any right-minded person calls it) to the South West Peninsula Premier, and aimlessly walking around towns from Carlisle to Newquay, Gray paints a curious landscape forgotten by many. He discovers how the provinces made the England we know, from Teesside's role in the Empire to Luton's in our mongrel DNA. Moments in the histories of his teams come together to form football's narrative, starting with Sheffield pioneers and ending with fan ownership at Chester, and Gray shows how the modern game unifies an England in flux and dominates the places in which it is played.
Hatters, Railwaymen and Knitters is a wry and affectionate ramble through the wonderful towns and teams that make the country and capture its very essence. It is part-football book, part-travelogue and part-love letter to the bits of England that often get forgotten, celebrated here in all their blessed eccentricity.
Reviews
“Excellent” – David Conn, Guardian
“Gray writes like Lowry paints. Superb” – BBC Lancashire
“Like a footballing version of Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island” – Four Four Two
“A wryly-observed history lesson on lower league football and proper Englishness” – Loaded
“Among urban blight, his astute eye can pick out details that are funny, redeeming or both … Book of the Week” – Bradford Telegraph and Argus
“It is perhaps obvious to compare Gray to Nick Hornby given the subject matter, yet the comparisons stretch beyond a passion for football … Beautifully written, nostalgic and reflective, this will also appeal to fans of Simon Armitage, Stuart Maconie and Tim Moore” – Books with Bunny blog
“Superlative … The book is beautifully written; pessimistic and damning, yet joyful and full of love for the game … Wonderful” – When Saturday Comes
“A delight. It's the kind of book, filled with astute observations of small details, that might just convince the most confirmed football sceptic why football has such a place in our culture … a book to savour and to make you think” – New Statesman
- See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/hatters-railwaymen-and-knitters-9781408834367/#sthash.PNZbqu8K.dpuf
Hatters, Railwaymen and Knitters (2013) by Daniel Gray
I'm not saying it's the greatest footie book I've ever read (that's probably Fever Pitch or Left Foot Forward) but it's a very enjoyable read
About Hatters, Railwaymen and Knitters
Daniel Gray is about to turn thirty. Like any sane person, his response is to travel to Luton, Crewe and Hinckley. After a decade's exile in Scotland, he sets out to reacquaint himself with England via what he considers its greatest asset: football.
Watching teams from the Championship (or Division Two as any right-minded person calls it) to the South West Peninsula Premier, and aimlessly walking around towns from Carlisle to Newquay, Gray paints a curious landscape forgotten by many. He discovers how the provinces made the England we know, from Teesside's role in the Empire to Luton's in our mongrel DNA. Moments in the histories of his teams come together to form football's narrative, starting with Sheffield pioneers and ending with fan ownership at Chester, and Gray shows how the modern game unifies an England in flux and dominates the places in which it is played.
Hatters, Railwaymen and Knitters is a wry and affectionate ramble through the wonderful towns and teams that make the country and capture its very essence. It is part-football book, part-travelogue and part-love letter to the bits of England that often get forgotten, celebrated here in all their blessed eccentricity.
Reviews
“Excellent” – David Conn, Guardian
“Gray writes like Lowry paints. Superb” – BBC Lancashire
“Like a footballing version of Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island” – Four Four Two
“A wryly-observed history lesson on lower league football and proper Englishness” – Loaded
“Among urban blight, his astute eye can pick out details that are funny, redeeming or both … Book of the Week” – Bradford Telegraph and Argus
“It is perhaps obvious to compare Gray to Nick Hornby given the subject matter, yet the comparisons stretch beyond a passion for football … Beautifully written, nostalgic and reflective, this will also appeal to fans of Simon Armitage, Stuart Maconie and Tim Moore” – Books with Bunny blog
“Superlative … The book is beautifully written; pessimistic and damning, yet joyful and full of love for the game … Wonderful” – When Saturday Comes
“A delight. It's the kind of book, filled with astute observations of small details, that might just convince the most confirmed football sceptic why football has such a place in our culture … a book to savour and to make you think” – New Statesman
- See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/hatters-railwaymen-and-knitters-9781408834367/#sthash.PNZbqu8K.dpuf
Two Professors
Two Mad Professors
Just started this again-lovely stuff!
m20gull
Well-known member
Second Division. Division Two is the Third Division or League One.
I particularly enjoyed A Season with Verona (and both Garry Nelson books, obviously)
batch_91
New member
Vinnie Jones' autobiography is a fantastic read, written just at the end of his football career before Lock Stock came along.
Quite interesting, after also reading Gazza's, to hear them both tell the story after the famous testicle squeezing, Gazza sent Vinnie a bunch of flowers, Vinnie sent back the nearest thing to hand...a toilet brush.
Quite interesting, after also reading Gazza's, to hear them both tell the story after the famous testicle squeezing, Gazza sent Vinnie a bunch of flowers, Vinnie sent back the nearest thing to hand...a toilet brush.
Justice
Dangerous Idiot
I'm currently writing a book about bedwetters loads of resource material on here.
W.C.
New member
- Oct 31, 2011
- 4,927
Bit ott that isn't it? Surely, 'How German football had one bad tournament but then quickly re established itself as a World force' would be more appropriate?
McTavish
Well-known member
- Nov 5, 2014
- 1,562
Agree on the Tim Parks book but what is now the Championship definitely used to be called Division Two (or League Division Two to give it its full title).
Would highly recommend Dynamo by Andy Dougan- kind of a real life Escape to Victory
"In 1942, an event took place not on the battlefield but in a municipal stadium in Kiev. A match was arranged between a German Luftwaffe side and a team of impoverished Kievans from a local bakery. This is the true story of courage, team loyalty and fortitude in the face of brutal oppression."
"In 1942, an event took place not on the battlefield but in a municipal stadium in Kiev. A match was arranged between a German Luftwaffe side and a team of impoverished Kievans from a local bakery. This is the true story of courage, team loyalty and fortitude in the face of brutal oppression."
m20gull
Well-known member
Think it's probably just me.
Agreed.
The_Viper
Well-known member
As someone born in 1990, Build a Bonfire.
Tom Hark Preston Park
Will Post For Cash
- Jul 6, 2003
- 70,246
Genuine query: Has anybody on here actually forked out for the thoughts of Scouse philosopher Joseph Barton, apart from in the Pound Shop January Sale?
Not for me.
I think on a previous NSC thread this was recommended, so went out and purchased it.
Thought it was rubbish - sorry........
Perhaps it was the hype....
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Wardy's twin
Well-known member
- Oct 21, 2014
- 8,448
this should be compulsory reading
Great book about great times watching the Albion.
I've got 2 other Albion books written by John Vinicombe
Cheshire Cat
The most curious thing..
I vaguely recall Alan Hudson's Football Annual 1972, but have no idea where my copy went.