For an autobiography to work,” explains writer Eamon Dunphy, “the subject has to be willing to discuss his faults. The footballer must show himself to be real and flawed.” Addicted was the first such autobiography. Adams talks with breathtaking honesty about the two addictions which have dominated his life – football and alcohol. Davies, Hunter (7 December 2007). "Confessions of a collector". The Guardian. London . Retrieved 20 November 2013.

Glory Game: The New Edition of the British Football Classic The Glory Game: The New Edition of the British Football Classic

Football life in 1972 is light years away from the current game. The salaries are nowhere near comparable, the lives from this day and age being regarded as fairly average, training facilities that would be regarded as primitive now and the only surprising contrast to today was after an FA Cup defeat at Leeds, when the team return to London by train and encounter some Spurs fans. Expecting to be on the end of their anger at having lost, they receive positive support despite the cup run being ended.a b "Hunter Davies". Qosfc.com. 26 September 2009. Archived from the original on 29 June 2015 . Retrieved 20 November 2013. Nantes: “All they have to do is play it simple. That’s the answer, but they won’t do it. When you get into difficulties, when the opposing team are doing well and not letting you do anything, all you do is play it very simple and things go your way.” Edward Hunter Davies OBE is an author, journalist and broadcaster, and a former editor for the Sunday Times of London. He is the author of numerous books, including The Glory Game and the only authorised biography of the Beatles. He was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, to Scottish parents. For four years his family lived in Dumfries until Davies was aged 11. I’d originally been told that as a club, Spurs would be completely unapproachable, and that Nicholson would be dour and difficult,” recalled Davies. “He was completely cooperative though, and when I informed the players that I would keep 50% of the royalties and split the other half equally between them, they were happy too. It wasn’t a huge amount of money though!”

glory game’s A Spurs takeover would be the final nail in the glory game’s

A Life in the Day' is the second part of Hunter Davies' autobiography, and the follow up to ' The Co-op's Got Bananas: A Memoir of Growing Up in the Post-War North', which I have yet to read. But this is as much The Sopranos as Field of Dreams. A season of joy, tragedy, hilarity and courage draws to a shabby close with the team throwing a game as a player reminds the author: “Remember, we are the land of Dante but also of Machiavelli.”

I nice football book, but I would have liked all the game scores to have been reported. The appendices about the football players were interesting. They all seemed to read The Sun. Hunter Davies, author of the only authorized biography of The Beatles, wrote in his introduction to the 2011 edition of T he Glory Game about a concern he had when the book first appeared in 1973. He hoped that it would appeal to an audience larger than Tottenham Hotspur fans. Through the unprecedented access Mr. Davies was granted by Tottenham, he was able to examine the club from all sides, to give a complete look at the inner workings of a top division team, and write a story that transcends the lines of fandom, and the hands of time. The scope of the book is not only restricted to what goes on within the club. The fans feature heavily, with hooliganism starting to rear its head and with the author being in amongst it, there are some vivid tales of the aggro that used to regularly take place on the terraces and the lads who perpetrated it are all wrapped in as part of the match-day experience. Half a century since Hunter Davies’ seminal book, The Glory Game, was first published, it remains one of football’s most revered tombs.

Glory Game: Year in the Life of Tottenham Hotspur Glory Game: Year in the Life of Tottenham Hotspur

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. And it’s all the better for it. Davies joined the sixth form at Carlisle Grammar School and was awarded a place at University College, Durham to read for an honours degree in History, but after his first year he switched to a general arts course. He gained his first writing experience as a student, contributing to the university newspaper, Palatinate, where one of his fellow student journalists was the future fashion writer Colin McDowell. After completing his degree course he stayed on at Durham for another year to gain a teaching diploma and avoid National Service. Journalist Davies spent an entire season with the team, training with them, visiting the players’ homes and witnessing the dressing-room confrontations – a luxury that seems so alien in modern-day football’s PR-managed world.And to celebrate the 50th anniversary since The Glory Game came out, Well Offside photographer Mark Leech delves into the Offside Sports Photography Archive to dig out the pictures taken for the book. Brilliant, anthropological account of life with Tottenham in 1973, before there were press officers and brand managers David Goldblatt, author of the World Football Yearbook You may change or cancel your subscription or trial at any time online. Simply log into Settings & Account and select "Cancel" on the right-hand side. The writer. He is present with the players and readers equally. He has just the right touch. He's aware and informed not just about the game but also about the culture. I've been a fan since I used to read his columns in Punch while waiting for a girlfriend to finish her shift at a dental practice. I've allowed our "Hunt" to tell me all about the Beatles and to guide me along Hadrian's Wall. The fellow can inform and entertain without either getting in the other's way. Davies’ 1972 book offered incredible insight of life at a football club as he was granted unprecedented access to Tottenham Hotspur’s 1971-72 as they went on to win that season’s UEFA Cup and challenging at the sharp end domestically.

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

Hunter Davies' book is based on the free access he was given to players and staff at Tottenham Hotspur in the early 1970's. There are no startling revelations - apart from one of the leading striker's devotion to the drink - but it is a fascinating insight into how a top team prepares for games and how it copes with the various triumphs and disasters of a league season - as it turned out a season that proved to be a particularly successful one for Spurs. The format. A season makes for a good story. The opportunity to explore different aspects of the club and the characters therein. You get to know people and care a little about them in human terms. 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. SPENCER LEIGH is the author of 25 books, most of them connected with The Beatles or popular music. He writes music obituaries for the Independent and for 25 years has had his own music programme on BBC Radio Merseyside. During the summer months they lived in their second home near Loweswater in the Lake District. [17] It was sold in July 2016. [18] His autobiography The Beatles, Football and Me was published in 2007. [3]With the palette of the Spurs team of 1971-1972 to paint with, Davies weaves an intricate pattern of inter-linked story-lines that change as the season progresses and fortunes of both the team and individuals change. With the hard to please manager Bill Nicholson and his un-PC sergeant-major assistant Eddie Baily, the team are constantly reminded of the club’s glorious past (of which they were both part), with the response to their methods sometimes at odds with performances on the pitch. HUNTER DAVIES is the author of the only ever authorised biography of The Beatles, still in print in almost every country in the world. In 2012 he edited The Lennon Letters, published in 20 different foreign countries, and in 2014 The Beatles Lyrics. He wrote the first book about the Quarrymen. Plus forty other non-Beatly books, including novels, biographies, travel and children’s books. As a journalist, he has a column in the Sunday Times about money and in the New Statesman about football. He was helped by having the 2002 World Cup and the rumpus surrounding Roy Keane’s departure from the squad as a starting point, but by the end that is just one issue among many. Football happens to have been Quinn’s life, but his autobiography is just as much about regret, about moving on and about remaining a decent man in a world that is profoundly indecent. Jonathan Wilson When I talk about the soul, I mean the part of football that is more than business,” he continues. “The soul is the passion and the loyalty of fans, but it is also the joy to be found in playing the game. As other collective institutions disappear, football clubs are becoming an increasingly central part of people’s identity, and that’s why we see these heroic struggles to save clubs when they are threatened.”