The beautiful game, beautiful book
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Loved this book. Very funny, very gentle, very poignant, very provocative. It gets a bit misty-eyed in parts as Irwin is clearly very sentimental about football, but banging on about Bovril and Wagon Wheels as he does a circuit of British football grounds, offering acidic asides about the new generation of prawn sandwich-crunching directors and supporters bussed in from hundreds of miles away. All this under the guise of a book about the genesis of the songs they sing on the terraces, which is genuinely fascinating. Really enjoyed it. Will be checking out his other books now.
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terrific
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Good to read a football book where the heroes are the fans. Most football books about fans dwell on the hooligans or glorify violence, this is a rare book celebrating the fans for their commitment to clubs and goes deeply into the background of the songs they sing.
Basically the author travels the country - including Wales and Scotland - joining the fans and drinking in the pubs with them afterwards to get their stories and their explanations for their obsessions. King of them all is Dave Burnley, who changed his name by deed poll and lives 80 miles from Burnley but who hasn't missed a game for 32 years. Amazing character! He's had pneumonia twice from sleeping rough cos he couldn't get home.
It's a very funny book but it's also full of information about the history of the clubs, players and songs and is quite thought-provoking about the way football is going with the ordinary fans being priced out of the game by the executive box brigade. Brilliant chapters about Chelsea and Manchester United but the best bits are when he travels to the smaller grounds like TNS in Wales and Wick near John O'Groats in Scotland.
All football fans - and directors - should read it!
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Is their an audio CD or DVD?
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Colin,
Is there and audio and/or visual CD or DVD with the book?
Thanks,
David
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