'Simply magnificent.' Mail on Sunday
A massive audience in sitting-rooms, parks and pubs watched England in the 2018 World Cup. Yet as Duncan Hamilton demonstrates with style, insight and wit in Going to the Match, watching on TV is no substitute for being there.
Hamilton embarks on a richly entertaining, exquisitely crafted journey through football. Glory game or grass roots, England v Slovenia or Guiseley v Hartlepool, he delves beneath the action to illuminate the stories which make the sport endlessly compelling.
Along the way he marvels at present-day titans Harry Kane, Mo Salah, Kevin De Bruyne and Paul Pogba, reflects on sepia-tinted magicians Stanley Matthews, Jimmy Greaves, Bobby Charlton and Pele, and assesses managerial giants from Brian Clough and Jose Mourinho to Arsene Wenger and Gareth Southgate.
The odyssey takes Hamilton from Fleetwood to Berlin, via Glasgow and a Manchester derby, making detours into art, cinema, literature and politics as he explores the game's ever-changing culture and character.
The result, like the L.S. Lowry painting that inspired the book, is a football masterpiece.
- ISBN10 1473661781
- ISBN13 9781473661783
- Publish Date 20 September 2018
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 11 March 2021
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Hodder & Stoughton
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 336
- Language English