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Across The Great Divide
Across The Great Divide
Oct 3, 2024 7:26 PM

Author:George Wilkie,Jim Wilkie

Across The Great Divide

Dundee. To football fans, it has been the subject of great curiosity for as long as the game has been played professionally. How does a relatively small and economically challenged city manage to sustain two senior clubs which, perversely, play across the road from one another? And why has this rivalry not suffered the scourge of sectarianism which has blighted football elsewhere in Scotland?

When Dundee United reached the semi-final of the 1983-84 European Cup it meant that, with the exception of Glasgow, Dundee was the only British city to have provided two semi-finalists in that great competition. Since then Dundee United have gone on to reach a UEFA Cup final and to win the Scottish Cup.

For Dundee FC, things have been slightly different. There are many fans with long enough memories to recall their glory days, and the silence of their suffering has been punctuated only by boardroom upheaval and the threat of closure. It is only recently that the club's fortunes have taken an upturn, with an influx of exciting, tenacious foreigners.

Things are changing. The economic, cultural and academic life of the City of Dundee has flourished in recent years. Meanwhile, as revolution sweeps the international footballing world, the scales of success - which determine the balance of soccer power on Tayside - are showing faltering signs of movement. The Jim McLean era has ended, but will Dundee's Italian risorgimento succeed? Should there be only one team? First published in 1984, Across the Great Divide has been revised to update the historical perspective on professional football in the City of Discovery.

Reviews

Fascinating

—— Guardian

Donaldson's offering on the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio mirrors his deep understanding of the sport's heroes

—— Independent

An enjoyable read that brings out the essence of a dedicated, warm and humble man

—— Classic Cars

The best biography of a racing driver I've ever read . . . it will make you laugh and cry

—— Classic Cars

I'd be frightened to put a price on his head these days ... Paul was as good a young player as I've ever worked with.

—— Howard Kendall

Without question, he is the best young player I have ever worked with

—— Mel Machin

You would class Paul in the top bracket. I always likened him to Colin Bell - he had that great ability to get up and down the park.

—— Tony Book

It was like having one of your mates playing for City. He would've captained England. No question. He was - and remains - one of us

—— Noel Gallagher

Paul Lake was the most gifted in the group of young players who brightened Manchester City up for fans in the 1980s who were pining for the glory days to return...his is an inspirational human story

—— David Conn , The Guardian

His memoir - I'm Not Really Here - spares nothing in the raw details of what Lake endured. A football read even more harrowing than an England player's World Cup diary

—— Sport

Sullivan knows how to craft a paragraph and tell a story

—— Sunday Business Post

Reads as what it is: a great first book

—— Jon Day , New Statesman

This morning Blood Horses showed up in the post. It’s Sullivan’s first book, a memoir about his late sportswriter father as well as a study of equine racing and breeding and obsessing over. We’re only 30 pages in but we’re convinced Sullivan wins it by a length and then some. He’s the best thing to come out of the south since 2 Chainz

—— Dazed and Confused

A truly fascinating and brilliantly written memoir recounting Sullivan’s relationship with his writer father but also a detailed examination of horse racing, the love of his father’s life, as well as an entire treatise on the relationship between man and horse

—— Doug Johnstone , The Big Issue

Blood Horses blends history, reportage and personal essay. The book is an excellent example of the mixed form that the critic Northrop Frye once called an “anatomy”. [Sullivan’s] enthusiasm rubs off

—— John Sunyer , Financial Times

Brilliant, sometimes maddeningly discursive memoir… Sullivan writes beautifully. Blood Horses makes better reading than the smoothly finished works of less witty and accomplished writers

—— Nick Rennison , Sunday Times

All the elegance and craft [Sullivan] displayed in [Pulphead] are present once again

—— Tim Lewis , Observer

Luminous, hard-to-characterise book... By the sheer fizzing excellence of his writing [Sullivan] carries off the difficult task he set himself triumphantly

—— Simon Redfern , Independent on Sunday

It’s a daring approach combining memoir and reportage and, beneath it all, the autobiographical theme of his attempt to understand his father, but it works magnificently

—— Christena Appleyard , Literary Review

An obvious choice, ultimately. A book that went beyond entertainment or education in their normal senses. This is the book that opened the world's eyes to the incredible doping scandal in cycling and the crimes of Lance Armstrong. A book that will be on almost all awards lists for books this year, and will surely migrate to the lists of all-time great books as its impact becomes more apparent over time.

—— Newstalk, Sports Book of the Year

Explosive... a stunning and sometimes sickening account of the doping pervasive in the pro peloton.

—— Sports Illustrated

Haunting... takes readers deep inside the gory cult of back-alley phlebotomy that ruled cycling as Armstrong launched and nurtured his Livestrong brand.

—— New York Daily News

Rich, magisterial account...Other books on Hemingway have tended to focus on his post-1930s literary decline and his machismo. The portrait that emerges from these pages is altogether more human

—— Ed Caesar , Sunday Times

He has a tremendous feel for Hemingway, as both writer and man

—— Sarah Churchwell , Guardian

This is a portrait of the author which is likely to leave one feeling more warmly disposed towards him

—— Herald

More a portrait than a biography, this book is a dazzling late example of "New Journalism"...the result is touching, revelatory and utterly absorbing

—— Independent

Unmissable

—— The Lady

While much of Hemingway’s life may have been hellish, Hendrickson’s writing is a delight. A fine work

—— Fachtna Kelly , Sunday Business Post

Very well told

—— William Leith , Scotsman

An album of fascinating snapshots of Hemingway

—— Simon Shaw , Mail on Sunday

Paul Hendrickson writes with a great deal of passion…

—— Nudge

A terrific and fresh approach to the man

—— Daniel Woodrell , Financial Times
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