But then, I remember this team better than I can remember the Huddersfield team I sat in the stand and cheered last season.

The Glory Game - Penguin Books UK

Davies has also written a biography of the fell walker Alfred Wainwright, and many works about the topography and history of the Lake District. Finally, how about this description of a party for one of the players to show that some things have moved on. The players in the 70's were much more accessible than today and it was cool to see how relaxed they were in giving Davies accounts of their personal lives. With all the hype surrounding it, I was anticipating something more sensational or groundbreaking, although it probably was both of these things, when it was released initially. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged.We honour Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' continuous connection to Country, waters, skies and communities. Football is at the heart of every chapter here, but witnessed through the prism of the Sunday Telegraph football reporter’s experiences and life journey along the way. Aside from the frequent references to flares, Triumph Stags, and Nicholson’s hatred of men with long hair, Davies’ book simply doesn’t date. I don't know if things have gotten better since then at Spurs and clubs like them, but in any case I'm glad I wasn't there. He is the author of numerous books, including The Glory Game and the only authorised biography of the Beatles.

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

Now the book is a decade old, you almost wish there were an update, given the breakneck pace at which politics and football move in Easter Europe. First released four months before the 1966 World Cup, John Moynihan’s The Soccer Syndrome is more a personal ode to post-war football, Brylcreem and all, rather than any kind of assessment of England’s chances at the upcoming tournament. I've enjoyed a few books that have taken this approach and this challenges my favourite which up until now has been I Lost My Heart to the Belles by Pete Davies where Davies once again showed himself to be a generation ahead of his time.

But this book was a unique opportunity for the author, who had not written a football book prior to this. You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. There is a passage in one of the foreword of one of the later editions (each has it’s own) that refers to a book being a classic, defined by its many reprints. As time moved on into the 1970s, '80s and '90s, Hunter encountered the likes of Sir Michael Caine , George Best, Melvyn Bragg, Joan Bakewell, Sir Sean Connery, Cilla Black, Paul Gascoigne, and Wayne Rooney to name a few. So many of their life events have paralleled mine that I feel we've been on much the same journey from very humble beginnings via education to our adult lives.

Davies, Hunter Joe Kinnear: Still Crazy - Kinnear, Joe; Davies, Hunter

If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial. Hunter touches on these areas but as he has written so many books, and newspaper columns, and done many other interesting things, he doesn't dwell on anything for long. In this much-anticipated sequel, Hunter now looks back across five decades of successful writing to reflect on his colourful memories of the living in London during the height of the Swinging Sixties , becoming editor of Britain’s first colour weekend supplement The Sunday Times magazine ; where he befriended the Beatles ; and reporting on (and partying with) some of the biggest names in television, film and theatre of the day. While some features of the game have changed beyond all recognition - notably the all-consuming role that money now plays - inside every club the dramas and tensions revealed by Davies remain, making the book a timeless classic and securing its position as one of the best books about football ever written.

I keep trying these forays into non-fiction only to be reminded of why I tend to stay away in the first place.