Overview
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2013 The story of one man's life told through the prism of his father and grandfather's love of football. 'Without football, we were strangers under a shared roof. With it, we were father and son.' Inspired by his father's devotion to Newcastle United and the heroes of yesteryear, Duncan Hamilton brings to life a bygone age telling the story of British football from the hardscrabble 1940s and the 'never-had-it-so-good' '50s right through to the dowdy First Division of the '70s and '80s, and today's slick Premiership. Hamilton recalls some of football's most sublime players, managers and characters, from Bill Shankly and Jackie Milburn to George Best and Lionel Messi. But at the heart of The Footballer Who could Fly is Hamilton's relationship with his own father. Here he tells how football became the only real connection between two people who, apart from their love of the beautiful game, were wholly different from one another.
Full Product Details
Author: Duncan Hamilton
Publisher: Cornerstone
Imprint: Windmill Books
Dimensions:
Width: 12.90cm
, Height: 2.20cm
, Length: 19.80cm
Weight: 0.268kg
ISBN: 9780099558576
ISBN 10: 0099558572
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 23 May 2013
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Reviews
Pitch Perfect...marvellous and affecting...Hamilton is a first rate pen-portraitionist... -- Wynn Wheldon The Spectator Hamilton brings football home...As a memoir, it is heart-crackingly nostalgic. As a record of historic moments in British football, it is eye-wateringly evocative. Blackpool Gazette Hamilton takes us on a hugely enjoyable nostalgia trip...a moving depiction of how football can bind together a family. Sunday Express Touching Sport Magazine The book is sincere and deeply honouring of Hamilton's father as well as dead greats such as Lawton, Shankly, Jackie Milburn, Duncan Edwards and Bobby Moore... Financial Times
Heart-crackingly nostalgic The Times Spellbindingly evocative ... an unforgettable homage not only to his father but to his flat-capped generation of ye grand olde days of thud and mud and Saturday's teatime urban gloaming. Observer Pitch perfect . This marvellous and affecting book, which is about love and fatherhood and history and manners as much as it is about football . Hamilton is a first-rate pen-portraitist. Spectator Hamilton wrote two of the best sports books of recent years, on Brian Clough and the cricketer Harold Larwood ... a fine collection of vignettes ... make this another winner. Sunday Times Hamilton takes us on a hugely enjoyable nostalgia trip...a moving depiction of how football can bind together a family. Sunday Express
Author Information
Duncan Hamilton is the author of Provided You Don't Kiss Me- 20 Years with Brian Clough which won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year for 2007. In 2009, he was awarded the William Hill again, for Harold Larwood, as well as winning the prestigious Wisden Book of the Year for 2009 and Biography of the Year at the 2010 British Sports Book Awards. He lives in the Yorkshire Dales.
