Saturday Bloody Saturday

[John Johnson 1605]

Thinking of a holiday read. Has anyone read Alistair Campbell’s football novel ? Any good ?

[Damo]

If it is half as good as his last novel "the Iraqi arms dossier" then it should be an absolute master piece

[CleggHall]

Campbell's book is not a bad read, 1970s football loosely based on a club like Burnley mixed up with IRA activity. Football description is good/realistic but won't spoil it for you, worth a read.

[Foulthrow]

I read it and wasn't impressed. It was a very typical football book. It was also hard to see what input Paul Fletcher had on the book as I didn't feel like I was getting any kind of insight that I'd not seen before.

There is also loads of character development of people in the book who just disappear and all the character development feels a little pointless.

[theroyaldyche]

Ive jus done

Peter Crouch
Ant Middleton

Both good reads

[KeighleyClaret]

Its a decent book to be fair. I loaned it to a Leeds fan who wasn't too impressed! But I liked it.

[tybfc]

Its a decent book to be fair. I loaned it to a Leeds fan who wasn't too impressed! But I liked it.

He probably couldn't read.

[Guich]

I enjoyed it. It's a good read for Burnley fans and anyone interested in 1970s social history and The Troubles.

Looks to me like all the football stuff was Fletch's insight and the Ireland conflict was AC's input.

[dsr]

This has just reminded me of the book "They used to play on grass" co-written by Terry Venables, published in 1970 but set in the future (sometime about now, perhaps). I read it years back and thought it mixed, but very good in parts; I've just ordered a copy off ebay to see how true the predictions were! (The all-UK league and the all-artificial pitches are tow that didn't.)