Another landmark work from Mike Calvin, who has taken us beyond the surface of football to show its true workings. Ground-breaking reportage with a heart and a conscience. A service to the game.

Extraordinary writing, a vital subject, a brilliant read

If you’re in any way interested in what lies beneath the water of the Premier League Iceberg, read Mike Calvin’s latest book No Hunger in Paradise

A fascinating insight which gets to the heart of the matter – and problems – chasing every kid’s dream. A compelling read for anyone who likes football and the stories surrounding the stars of tomorrow. I couldn't put it down.

Another exceptional piece of work

Highly recommended reading. An excellent and important book . . . No Hunger in Paradise explores the world of youth football and, if the stories within do one thing, they press the claim for serious discussion about how the English game treats the thousands of children who come into contact with the sharper end of youth football – and their families who often get reeled in to a cut-throat environment without really understanding what is going on

Eye-opening and compelling

Terrifying

No Hunger in Paradise is somehow both heart-breaking and uplifting. Just brilliant!

No Hunger in Paradise is humbling, educational, worrying and a great read. Can't recommend it highly enough. One of the best sports books I've ever read.

Started reading this and it's brilliant. Seriously recommended. Yet another important football book from Michael Calvin. In-depth well-researched accounts of the journey from kids football to the professional game..or rejection

If you've any interest in the future of football in this country and the young players who will provide it, No Hunger in Paradiseis a must-read.

Bleak but brilliant. Contains stories that need to be heard.

A brilliant & very important book. Vital, highly recommended. Tempted to say it's Michael Calvin’s best yet, which is some praise.

The best sports book I'm likely to read this year. Highly recommend you buy it.

A brilliant insight into the journey young kids now make from kicking a ball around in their back garden, through the glossy facilities of academy football.

His research is, as ever, impeccable… No Hunger in Paradise is a fascinating and fitting finale to a trio of books any football lover should own.

Heartbreaking . . . an excellent piece of reportage

The award-winning writer’s new forensic, and sometimes alarming, case study into why some young prospects make the cut – and others fall away – is fascinating…
The FA would do well to read this if they want success

Brilliantly sourced and written… As a portrait of the state of the modern game, No Hunger In Paradise is vital reading. With Calvin’s previous studies, it serves as a record of what football is like today and should place him alongside Arthur Hopcraft, John Moynihan and Hunter Davies in providing the sport with its defining literature

One of the great, and most important, sports books of 2017. Passionate, incisive, gripping.

Calvin is a natural storyteller who is unflinching as he goes behind the scenes and meets the people at the heart of the youth development network.

The book is an eye-opener into the pressures put on young players by clubs, coaches and parents; the corruption and conceit, bullying and harassment. Plus the lengths those clubs and their scouts go to, to recruit kids who have yet to reach secondary school.

Completes his formidable trilogy on the game with a blistering indictment of how it treats its youngest players

Outstanding

Ann Wroe’s Six Facets of Light is a fascinating and original meditation [on light]. Six Facets of Light is an exquisite collage of relations, a prose poem to “what escaped” absolutely everyone – and to how madly, brilliantly, they tried to “be in step”.