Author:John Williams
Many years have now passed since the greatest period of European dominance by any English football club came to an end. Between 1977 and 1984, Liverpool won the European Cup an unprecedented four times and established themselves as the number-one team in Europe. It was during the successful European Cup campaigns of 1981 and 1984 that the unlikely figure of Alan Kennedy came to dominate the headlines.
Folk-hero left-back Alan Kennedy - nicknamed 'Barney Rubble' by fans after The Flintstones character due to his straightforward, no-frills approach to the game - scored the winning goal in the 1981 European Cup final against Real Madrid, as well as the nerve-twanging winning shoot-out penalty against AS Roma in 1984, a feat which secured his position in European football history.
Kennedy's Way examines Kennedy's footballing career under manager Bob Paisley (and, later, under Joe Fagan) and provides a retrospective account of Liverpool's dominance during those years. Drawing on Kennedy's memories of the period, as well as those of other players and backroom staff involved with the Reds at that time, it is an irreverent, revealing account of the dressing-room culture at the club while it was at the height of its powers.
The book concludes with reflections on Kennedy's post-playing life and on the trajectory of Liverpool since the Heysel and Hillsborough tragedies, in 1985 and 1989 respectively, right up to recent events at the club, including the exit of Gérard Houllier and the team's dramatic return to the pinnacle of European club football under new manager Rafael Benítez.
'With the help of other players and backroom staff he examines the club in the Paisley glory years'.
—— The Daily ExpressA naturalist who can unfurl a sentence with the breathless ease of a master angler, a writer whose ideas and reach far transcend the physical region he explores
—— The New York Times Book Review[Mountains of the Mind is] a distinguished book that jolted my heart. Adventurous, passionate, intensely romantic . . . fizzes with insights
—— Roger DeakinA new naturalist to set beside the classics in our literature
—— Evening StandardThe Old Ways confirms Robert Macfarlane's reputation as one of the most eloquent and observant of contemporary writers about nature
—— Scotland on SundayMacfarlane relishes wild, as well as old, places. He writes about both beautifully . . . I love to read Macfarlane
—— Financial TimesRead this and it will be impossible to take an unremarkable walk again
—— Metro