Author:James Walvin
At the beginning of the twentieth century, soccer was widely accepted as the most popular game in the western world. In the space of a few decades, it had become the best-supported team game in Britain, watched and played by more boys and men than any other sport. Yet here was a game with strong traditional folk roots and a history that stretched back to the late Middle Ages. In the course of the nineteenth century, football was transformed, mainly within the British public schools, to become the codified and disciplined game of urban working men. The passion for the game spread from one town to another, a passion that, though familiar today, was new in the years after 1870. Thereafter, the game rapidly spread to much of the world: to Europe, South America and a host of other societies.
This book tells the story of the rise of this remarkable British game and the way it became the game of the masses across the world. In the wealth of literature about football published in recent years, no other book provides so concise and colourful an account as The People's Game.
Foxcatcher is something dark and delirious, yet rigidly controlled: a film to be considered alongside The Social Network and The Master as a swirling, smoke-black parable of modern America
—— TelegraphBennett Miller's sports movie Foxcatcher - based on a grisly true story - is a superb tragicomedy of the beta-male. It is a gripping film which gets you in a hold and won't let go
—— GuardianA great, insidiously gripping psychological drama... the sole credible awards-season heavyweight to have emerged from this year's Cannes
—— VarietyFor those who loved Footballers' Wives, this book is a must-pack. It's a fascinating insight into the world of being in the spotlight. OK, it's not highbrow, but it's definitely entertaining.
—— Look - holiday reads must-have booksA juicy exposé of what it's like being married to a man on a weekly six-figure salary but also rebutting some of the myths that surround Wags... That honesty makes this a great read, and you won't look at Coleen and co in quite the same light again.
—— Sunday ExpressThe real-life story of an anonymous footballer's wife struggling to juggle motherhood with life in the spotlight. We've been busy speculating about just who wrote this juicy book.
—— Woman's OwnAn encyclopaedic portrait of English football stripped of all the non-stop hype. The beautiful game is, after all, a dirty business
—— Financial Times (Life & Arts)An intensely readable socioeconomic study of English football in the age of globalisation
—— New StatesmanA book that informs and inspires, a truly great piece of writing
—— Philosophy FootballThe best pub talker of a book for years
—— Sunday SportGoldblatt has a gift for exploring the way the game holds a mirror up to our lives ... His deconstruction of the modern game could hardly be bettered
—— Observer[A] bold analysis of Britain's economic and social change refracted through football
—— The TimesA salient overview of the past quarter-century
—— Times Literary SupplementThe deserving winner of this year's William Hill Sports Book of the Year award
—— Chris Maume , IndependentThis is a breakthrough book by one of the leading young lights of Australian writing
—— Cath Turner , NudgeDespite it being an almost impossible subject to write about, Krien has produced a brilliant, disarming, thought-provoking book
—— Malachy Clerkin , Irish TimesA thought-provoking book that every aspiring male footballer should be made to read…as part of their apprenticeship
—— Susan Egelstaff , HeraldA worthy, if unexpected, winner
—— Simon Redfern , Independent On SundayA depressing but essential read
—— Sharon Wheeler , Times Higher Educationan intelligent and unsettling exploration of how sport’s macho culture and exclusion of women enable abuse
—— David Evans, Four Stars , Independent on Sunday
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