He writes a football column for the New Statesman. [7] A compilation of these articles was released as a book, The Fan, in 2005 by Pomona Press. Davies writes "Confessions of a Collector" in The Guardian's Weekend colour magazine. [8] He has written a book about his collections with the same title. The scope of the book is not only restricted to what goes on within the club. The fans feature heavily, with hooliganism starting to rear its head and with the author being in amongst it, there are some vivid tales of the aggro that used to regularly take place on the terraces and the lads who perpetrated it are all wrapped in as part of the match-day experience.

Glory Game by Hunter Davies | Goodreads The Glory Game by Hunter Davies | Goodreads

In the 1971/72 season, Davies was granted unprecedented access to Tottenham boss Bill Nicholson and his 19-man first-team pool. With no official contract behind him, he admits to “worming my way in” at White Hart Lane, and convincing all those concerned that an “inside story” book charting Spurs’ season would be a worthwhile project. I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovic is different. The Manchester United striker revels in his role as pantomime anti-hero, but goes deeper than mere Marmite pastiche. The searing honesty of how his relationship with Pep Guardiola disintegrated at Barcelona– which notably details how fragile that seemingly unshakable ego can actually be – is refreshing, as is how an unforgiving upbringing spending time between an overworked cleaner mother and indifferent alcoholic father shaped everything that followed. SPENCER LEIGH is the author of 25 books, most of them connected with The Beatles or popular music. He writes music obituaries for the Independent and for 25 years has had his own music programme on BBC Radio Merseyside. You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here.

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Hunter Davies, author of the only authorized biography of The Beatles, wrote in his introduction to the 2011 edition of T he Glory Game about a concern he had when the book first appeared in 1973. He hoped that it would appeal to an audience larger than Tottenham Hotspur fans. Through the unprecedented access Mr. Davies was granted by Tottenham, he was able to examine the club from all sides, to give a complete look at the inner workings of a top division team, and write a story that transcends the lines of fandom, and the hands of time.

The 50 Best Football Books Ever: 30-21 | FourFourTwo The 50 Best Football Books Ever: 30-21 | FourFourTwo

I’d originally been told that as a club, Spurs would be completely unapproachable, and that Nicholson would be dour and difficult,” recalled Davies. “He was completely cooperative though, and when I informed the players that I would keep 50% of the royalties and split the other half equally between them, they were happy too. It wasn’t a huge amount of money though!” Davies was married to the writer Margaret Forster from 1960 [14] until her death in 2016. Their daughter Caitlin Davies is also an author. From 1963, the family lived in the north London district of Dartmouth Park. [15] [16]I bought ‘ A Life in the Day' on a whim when it came up as an Audible deal of the day. The only other book I have read by Hunter Davies is ' The Glory Game', a brilliant study of a season embedded with Tottenham Hotspur FC in the early 1970s. Brilliant, anthropological account of life with Tottenham in 1973, before there were press officers and brand managers David Goldblatt, author of the World Football Yearbook The lament for football’s lost golden age and the belief that commercial interests have sullied the game are nothing new – Willy Meisl’s 1960 book Soccer Revolution argues that the liberalisation of the offside law in 1925, which played to the popular demand for more goals, was the beginning of the end. However, Conn’s 2004 book is a heartfelt account of the increasingly rapid changes of the previous couple of decades. “It is deeply frustrating,” he writes, “seeing the national game revel in a boom, which could take it so far, yet drive itself so needlessly into dysfunction and failure.” Paper. Condition: Very Good +. B/W Photographs (illustrator). First Thus. Tottenham (see London) Hotspurs football club won the FA Cup in 1961. Players in those special days included : Alan Gilzean, Steve Perryman, Danny Blanchflower, Martin Chivers, Cyril Knowles, and Joe Kinnear. Follow the team to County Down, Roumania, Coventry City, Cheshunt, and Nantes. Read more anbout : Charrington. Supporters Club, Under 23, and Bethnal Green Road. Cond : Paper wrapper is green with yellow lettering. Front cover graphic is a photo of the FA Cup. Hinge, all edges, and some corners lightly rubbed. Clean, binding tight, not faded. Excellent reading copy !! No names, marks, creases, nor tears. Quote (p. 93) : " He went to Tottenham Grammar School, though several years ahead of Mr. Wale, and has always been a keen Spurs fan. He still has a cuttings book, lovingly preserved amongst his Elizabethan paintings and objets d' art , in which as a boy of twelve he ._._._. .". HUNTER DAVIES is the author of the only ever authorised biography of The Beatles, still in print in almost every country in the world. In 2012 he edited The Lennon Letters, published in 20 different foreign countries, and in 2014 The Beatles Lyrics. He wrote the first book about the Quarrymen. Plus forty other non-Beatly books, including novels, biographies, travel and children’s books. As a journalist, he has a column in The Sunday Times about money and in the New Statesman about football.