A well rendered telling of England's glory years, 04 Jan 2009
A year after the publication of Bobby Charlton's outstanding `My Manchester United Years' comes volume two - concerning his England career, which spanned 106 caps and an unprecedented four World Cup Finals.

No living player is better qualified to write about their experiences with England than Charlton, whose time in an England shirt spanned from the monochrome era of Tom Finney to that of Peter Shilton (whom even I, a thirty year old, recall as an England player).

The problem with it, particularly in the pre-Ramsey years, is that too little material is stretched out. Most other players combine their club and international volumes into a single volume. The length of Charlton's England career allows him to do two books - but in the context of a player's career, 106 games is the equivalent of a couple of seasons. It would be a bit like David Beckham writing `My LA Galaxy Years' in forty years time.

There is also a sense that he plays up to his status as the grand old man of English football. And who could blame him? He has, after all, won everything there is to be won in a career marked with courage, dignity and distinction. But the tone can seem fogeyish and at worst rambling, inane, and not true to Bobby Charlton's voice. After all, could you imagine him saying the following passage?

"Perhaps he decided that in this new world of football, of changing formations and the clearest evidence that in terms of ball skills and tactical subtleties many rival nations had passed us by, we need, as another embattled public figure, Prime Minister John Major, would later say `to get back to basics'."

Fortunately, most of the rest of the book isn't as horribly written as this, and by the time Alf Ramsey comes on board this volume hits full pace. The insights into the imperceptible Ramsey are compelling and better dealt with than by the likes of Alan Ball and Nobby Stiles in recent years. Charlton is particularly good on the routines and intensely close camp in the run up to the 1966 World Cup. He makes clear the debt of gratitude that the nation owes Alf Ramsey and he was surprisingly accepting of the way in which he was dropped by him after the 1970 World Cup.

Criticisms, however, tend to be oblique. I was surprised that there wasn't greater anger at the disgusting way Alf Ramsey and Bobby Moore were latterly treated by the FA. Perhaps he doesn't want to upset friends in high places? On the other hand, Peter Bonetti is singled out (albeit in Sir Bobby's roundabout way) for the defeat to West Germany in 1970.

In sum this is a decent companion to Sir Bobby's first volume of memoirs, even if it is slow to get going and, particularly in the early pages, there is a sense that his publishers are milking him for everything. Perhaps it fails by comparison to volume one, which was one of the best sporting memoirs of recent years. On its own merits, however, this is often a compelling story, generally well told if not sometimes eccentrically structured and strangely written - but it beats hands down any one of the turgid offerings by the current crop of underperforming England stars.

More England than Bobby, 21 Nov 2008
This is the second part of Sir Bobby Charlton's fascinating autobiography. In the first, "My Manchester United Years", he provided a lot of moving personal insight into, for example, his trauma post-Munich air disaster, how the club dealt with the other surviving players and their families, and his, at times, difficult relationship with his mother and brother. In other words it was a personally revealing book. This second part, by comparison, is in many ways more typical of a footballer's autobiography, focusing on match details and brief, albeit personal, pen pictures of the characters involved. For regular consumers of books covering this era of football there is little new or surprising here.

Despite this, the book is well-written, thoughful and informative. Here this great footballer leaves aside the pain and angst of Munich and transmits something of the sheer quality and competitiveness of football at the highest level. His convictions about teamwork are clear and here you feel is where he was most comfortable, immersed in what he did best alongside others of the same kind, where the only questions were how to play and how to win.

Finally, there are some striking glances into just how accessible top footballers used to be. For example, this most famous of Englishmen popped out to do some shopping on the morning of playing in the World Cup Final, in the capital city of his own country. I can vouch for this as I once wandered up his front drive, after he was a World and European Cup winner, and while he was hoovering the inside of his car I had a chat and obtained an autograph. For anyone who grew up watching Sir Bobby and remembers the era when he was simply the best English player alive then this book is a must-buy complement to volume one.

A must have 2-part autobiography for any serious sports fan, 15 Nov 2008
Nothing annoys me more than sports men and women writing their autobiography's after some brief initial success before disappearing into the abyss of the unsustainables...... Bobby Charlton 'scores' again firstly by employing an award winning ghost writer making the reading a real pleasure but also by having enough great stories to tell having had long and eventful sporting life. This book, as the cover suggests, chronicles Mr. Charlton's England career. The book is also not without humour and without spoiling it for you, his first confrontation with Pele is laugh out loud funny!

An Excellent Sequel, 10 Nov 2008
The original "United Years" did not leave much to be desired as an extraordinary account of the life an extraordinary man. However, the "England Years" proved to be just as compelling and interesting, the book provides the fascinating insight of a hugely influential player on a volatile period of English football and really shouldn't be missed. A great read for any sports fan.

An insiders view of the England football team 1958 to 1970, 07 Nov 2008
Although this is the second part of Bobby Charltons autobiography, it would be more accurate to think of it as being Bobby Charltons biography of the England football team from 1958, when he made his debut, to 1970, when he played his final England game, in the cruel defeat to West Germany in the Mexico World Cup.

As most of his autobiographical details were dealt with in the first book, the Manchester United Years, this book is almost totally devoted to football and there is very little of Bobby Charlton the man (as opposed to Bobby Charlton the footballer) in it. This is not meant as a critism because, like the first one, this is an excellent book.

It is largely forgotten now but fifty years ago the England football team was in a bit of the mess. At one stage - between 1958 & 1959 - they only won one game in eleven, and that was against an extremely weak USA team. As this book explains, the then manager, Walter Winterbottom, tried his best to build a winning team but he had an impossible task because in those days the England manager had very limited powers, having to refer most things, even team selection, to an FA committee. It was only after the arrival of the single-minded Alf Ramsey, in 1963, that things started to change for the better.

Being an integral part of Ramseys team (even if Sir Alf made sure that Charlton was aware that not even his place in the team was guaranteed)Bobby Charlton was well placed to cast judgement on his role in turning England into World Champions in 1966. He explains that to win the World Cup, Ramsey built a team containing not the eleven best English players but instead the eleven players who one do the best job as a TEAM. This is why the free scoring Jimmy Greaves did not play in the World Cup Final but instead the lesser talented Geoff Hurst did.

Although, quite rightly, the bulk of the book is about the 1966 World Cup and the build up towards it, Bobby Charltons two other World Cup campaigns, in 1962 & 1970, are well covered. The story of Englands quarter final defeat to West Germany after being two goals up and coasting is particuarly absorbing reading as there were many interesting side stories - Franz Beckenbauers marking job on Charlton, Gordon Banks's bad stomach, Englands capitulation after Charlton was substituted, Bobby Moore being accused of theft - involved.

A very good book, and together with 'The Manchester United Years' surely amongst the best fooball autobiographies ever written.

A well rendered telling of England's glory years, 04 Jan 2009
A year after the publication of Bobby Charlton's outstanding `My Manchester United Years' comes volume two - concerning his England career, which spanned 106 caps and an unprecedented four World Cup Finals.

No living player is better qualified to write about their experiences with England than Charlton, whose time in an England shirt spanned from the monochrome era of Tom Finney to that of Peter Shilton (whom even I, a thirty year old, recall as an England player).

The problem with it, particularly in the pre-Ramsey years, is that too little material is stretched out. Most other players combine their club and international volumes into a single volume. The length of Charlton's England career allows him to do two books - but in the context of a player's career, 106 games is the equivalent of a couple of seasons. It would be a bit like David Beckham writing `My LA Galaxy Years' in forty years time.

There is also a sense that he plays up to his status as the grand old man of English football. And who could blame him? He has, after all, won everything there is to be won in a career marked with courage, dignity and distinction. But the tone can seem fogeyish and at worst rambling, inane, and not true to Bobby Charlton's voice. After all, could you imagine him saying the following passage?

"Perhaps he decided that in this new world of football, of changing formations and the clearest evidence that in terms of ball skills and tactical subtleties many rival nations had passed us by, we need, as another embattled public figure, Prime Minister John Major, would later say `to get back to basics'."

Fortunately, most of the rest of the book isn't as horribly written as this, and by the time Alf Ramsey comes on board this volume hits full pace. The insights into the imperceptible Ramsey are compelling and better dealt with than by the likes of Alan Ball and Nobby Stiles in recent years. Charlton is particularly good on the routines and intensely close camp in the run up to the 1966 World Cup. He makes clear the debt of gratitude that the nation owes Alf Ramsey and he was surprisingly accepting of the way in which he was dropped by him after the 1970 World Cup.

Criticisms, however, tend to be oblique. I was surprised that there wasn't greater anger at the disgusting way Alf Ramsey and Bobby Moore were latterly treated by the FA. Perhaps he doesn't want to upset friends in high places? On the other hand, Peter Bonetti is singled out (albeit in Sir Bobby's roundabout way) for the defeat to West Germany in 1970.

In sum this is a decent companion to Sir Bobby's first volume of memoirs, even if it is slow to get going and, particularly in the early pages, there is a sense that his publishers are milking him for everything. Perhaps it fails by comparison to volume one, which was one of the best sporting memoirs of recent years. On its own merits, however, this is often a compelling story, generally well told if not sometimes eccentrically structured and strangely written - but it beats hands down any one of the turgid offerings by the current crop of underperforming England stars.

More England than Bobby, 21 Nov 2008
This is the second part of Sir Bobby Charlton's fascinating autobiography. In the first, "My Manchester United Years", he provided a lot of moving personal insight into, for example, his trauma post-Munich air disaster, how the club dealt with the other surviving players and their families, and his, at times, difficult relationship with his mother and brother. In other words it was a personally revealing book. This second part, by comparison, is in many ways more typical of a footballer's autobiography, focusing on match details and brief, albeit personal, pen pictures of the characters involved. For regular consumers of books covering this era of football there is little new or surprising here.

Despite this, the book is well-written, thoughful and informative. Here this great footballer leaves aside the pain and angst of Munich and transmits something of the sheer quality and competitiveness of football at the highest level. His convictions about teamwork are clear and here you feel is where he was most comfortable, immersed in what he did best alongside others of the same kind, where the only questions were how to play and how to win.

Finally, there are some striking glances into just how accessible top footballers used to be. For example, this most famous of Englishmen popped out to do some shopping on the morning of playing in the World Cup Final, in the capital city of his own country. I can vouch for this as I once wandered up his front drive, after he was a World and European Cup winner, and while he was hoovering the inside of his car I had a chat and obtained an autograph. For anyone who grew up watching Sir Bobby and remembers the era when he was simply the best English player alive then this book is a must-buy complement to volume one.

A must have 2-part autobiography for any serious sports fan, 15 Nov 2008
Nothing annoys me more than sports men and women writing their autobiography's after some brief initial success before disappearing into the abyss of the unsustainables...... Bobby Charlton 'scores' again firstly by employing an award winning ghost writer making the reading a real pleasure but also by having enough great stories to tell having had long and eventful sporting life. This book, as the cover suggests, chronicles Mr. Charlton's England career. The book is also not without humour and without spoiling it for you, his first confrontation with Pele is laugh out loud funny!

An Excellent Sequel, 10 Nov 2008
The original "United Years" did not leave much to be desired as an extraordinary account of the life an extraordinary man. However, the "England Years" proved to be just as compelling and interesting, the book provides the fascinating insight of a hugely influential player on a volatile period of English football and really shouldn't be missed. A great read for any sports fan.

An insiders view of the England football team 1958 to 1970, 07 Nov 2008
Although this is the second part of Bobby Charltons autobiography, it would be more accurate to think of it as being Bobby Charltons biography of the England football team from 1958, when he made his debut, to 1970, when he played his final England game, in the cruel defeat to West Germany in the Mexico World Cup.

As most of his autobiographical details were dealt with in the first book, the Manchester United Years, this book is almost totally devoted to football and there is very little of Bobby Charlton the man (as opposed to Bobby Charlton the footballer) in it. This is not meant as a critism because, like the first one, this is an excellent book.

It is largely forgotten now but fifty years ago the England football team was in a bit of the mess. At one stage - between 1958 & 1959 - they only won one game in eleven, and that was against an extremely weak USA team. As this book explains, the then manager, Walter Winterbottom, tried his best to build a winning team but he had an impossible task because in those days the England manager had very limited powers, having to refer most things, even team selection, to an FA committee. It was only after the arrival of the single-minded Alf Ramsey, in 1963, that things started to change for the better.

Being an integral part of Ramseys team (even if Sir Alf made sure that Charlton was aware that not even his place in the team was guaranteed)Bobby Charlton was well placed to cast judgement on his role in turning England into World Champions in 1966. He explains that to win the World Cup, Ramsey built a team containing not the eleven best English players but instead the eleven players who one do the best job as a TEAM. This is why the free scoring Jimmy Greaves did not play in the World Cup Final but instead the lesser talented Geoff Hurst did.

Although, quite rightly, the bulk of the book is about the 1966 World Cup and the build up towards it, Bobby Charltons two other World Cup campaigns, in 1962 & 1970, are well covered. The story of Englands quarter final defeat to West Germany after being two goals up and coasting is particuarly absorbing reading as there were many interesting side stories - Franz Beckenbauers marking job on Charlton, Gordon Banks's bad stomach, Englands capitulation after Charlton was substituted, Bobby Moore being accused of theft - involved.

A very good book, and together with 'The Manchester United Years' surely amongst the best fooball autobiographies ever written.





Will this review appear???, 29 Dec 2008

What a Waste, to quote the man himself.Lamenting the passage of time he allowed to snub his one time friend Mr.Taylor. The Partnership they both enjoyed went the way so many do as one takes the other for granted or rifts occur and eventually parts them. Humble beginnings saw them reach for the sky shooting for the top with unerring accuracy.
It's ironic that his short time at Leeds was over shadowed by his predecessor, Revie. Clough felt his omnipresence like a resident ghost but this would also be the legacy he left at Forest. I also feel that what Clough despised in Revie was a reflection of his own failings. Clough accused Revie of cheating with bribery of referees but when you read about a suitcase full of money..around £15,000 then their traits were quite similar.
A compulsive read which Hamilton has more than done justice to.

Genius, 09 Oct 2008
This book is fantastic. Not a biography, not exactly a memoir, but instead a series of reflections of twenty years spent with Ol Big Ead himself. Clough was a one off - brilliant, impossible, bonkers, infuriating, despicable, loveable, untameable. He took a nothing provincial club and went and won the European Cup. Twice. Unbelieveable.

And this book does the man justice. Crucially, it also does Peter Taylor justice; describing their symbiotic partnership. It also brings back a real nostalgia for the times when footballers weren't pampered prima donnas earning £150k a week. They liked a pint, and a fag, when apprentices had to clean the pros boots, and the game was simpler, less bloated. And when there was room for real characters. And this is a loving but seemingly honest portrait of the biggest character of them all. Demands to be read alongside "The Damned United".

The best of the Clough books, 11 Sep 2008
Just when you thought everything that could be written about Brian Clough had been written, along comes Duncan Hamilton and trumps the lot of them. There are very few, if any, people that stayed with Clough throughout his time at Forest, and no one had the access to Cloughie that Hamilton enjoyed.

To say the book is about Clough, however, is a bit misleading. It's more about his relationship with Hamilton, and how he plays the father figure to the young Nottingham Evening Post journalist. One review criticises the book for going into Clough's more unsavoury characteristics - the drink, the bullying, the whole treatment of Peter Taylor - but I applaud Hamilton for this. In revealing Clough's flaws, you see the vulnerability of the man, making him more human and endearing in the process, rather than the quote machine that others writers have presented him as. Hamilton never pretends to know what Clough was thinking - as David Peace did in the inferior, over-rated Damned United - and indeed Clough's unpredictability is a central theme to the book. Hamilton simply presents the facts as he saw them.

There will never be another Brian Clough, more's the pity, but Duncan Hamilton has provided us with a fitting testament to the man's career. The book is as good as sports writing gets, and it was fully deserving of its William Hill Sports Book of the Year award. Cloughie's character and legend are so strong that there will be dozens of books written about him in the years to come, but none will come close to this fine work.

A Big Story..., 16 Jul 2008
Excellent, straightforward sports biography, distinguished by Hamilton's closeness to his subject and the resulting intimacy of the portrait. No tricks, no fiction or imagined scenes, just sensitive writing and informed analysis of the Clough career and of a very different time in British football - a big enough story in its own right to require very little embroidery.

Duncan Hamilton makes no bones about how fortunate he was to be allowed unparalleled access to the force of nature that was Brian Clough. The portrait that emerges seems to come from something for which 'love' is maybe the only appropriate word; it's to Hamilton's credit that it never seems like obsession as, throughout, he is remarkably clear-eyed about Clough's weaknesses as well as his astonishing triumphs. The excellent and detailed accounts of how Clough took not one but two poor-to-middling English clubs to the heights of European glory (a feat that one struggles to imagine being repeated today) are balanced by an understanding of his very human insecurities and frailties, and by an increasingly dominant subtext - a (literally) sobering account of how low even a character as powerful as Clough could be laid by alcohol.


His favourite word was`s*ithouse`!, 09 Jul 2008
This is one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read. I am old enough to remember Clough at his managerial peak in the seventies. What he managed to achieve at two relatively small clubs will never be repeated. Also, I had often wondered why he and his friend/assistant Peter Taylor fell out and Duncan Hamilton explains the whole sorry tale. Do yourself a favour and buy this book.

A well rendered telling of England's glory years, 04 Jan 2009
A year after the publication of Bobby Charlton's outstanding `My Manchester United Years' comes volume two - concerning his England career, which spanned 106 caps and an unprecedented four World Cup Finals.

No living player is better qualified to write about their experiences with England than Charlton, whose time in an England shirt spanned from the monochrome era of Tom Finney to that of Peter Shilton (whom even I, a thirty year old, recall as an England player).

The problem with it, particularly in the pre-Ramsey years, is that too little material is stretched out. Most other players combine their club and international volumes into a single volume. The length of Charlton's England career allows him to do two books - but in the context of a player's career, 106 games is the equivalent of a couple of seasons. It would be a bit like David Beckham writing `My LA Galaxy Years' in forty years time.

There is also a sense that he plays up to his status as the grand old man of English football. And who could blame him? He has, after all, won everything there is to be won in a career marked with courage, dignity and distinction. But the tone can seem fogeyish and at worst rambling, inane, and not true to Bobby Charlton's voice. After all, could you imagine him saying the following passage?

"Perhaps he decided that in this new world of football, of changing formations and the clearest evidence that in terms of ball skills and tactical subtleties many rival nations had passed us by, we need, as another embattled public figure, Prime Minister John Major, would later say `to get back to basics'."

Fortunately, most of the rest of the book isn't as horribly written as this, and by the time Alf Ramsey comes on board this volume hits full pace. The insights into the imperceptible Ramsey are compelling and better dealt with than by the likes of Alan Ball and Nobby Stiles in recent years. Charlton is particularly good on the routines and intensely close camp in the run up to the 1966 World Cup. He makes clear the debt of gratitude that the nation owes Alf Ramsey and he was surprisingly accepting of the way in which he was dropped by him after the 1970 World Cup.

Criticisms, however, tend to be oblique. I was surprised that there wasn't greater anger at the disgusting way Alf Ramsey and Bobby Moore were latterly treated by the FA. Perhaps he doesn't want to upset friends in high places? On the other hand, Peter Bonetti is singled out (albeit in Sir Bobby's roundabout way) for the defeat to West Germany in 1970.

In sum this is a decent companion to Sir Bobby's first volume of memoirs, even if it is slow to get going and, particularly in the early pages, there is a sense that his publishers are milking him for everything. Perhaps it fails by comparison to volume one, which was one of the best sporting memoirs of recent years. On its own merits, however, this is often a compelling story, generally well told if not sometimes eccentrically structured and strangely written - but it beats hands down any one of the turgid offerings by the current crop of underperforming England stars.

More England than Bobby, 21 Nov 2008
This is the second part of Sir Bobby Charlton's fascinating autobiography. In the first, "My Manchester United Years", he provided a lot of moving personal insight into, for example, his trauma post-Munich air disaster, how the club dealt with the other surviving players and their families, and his, at times, difficult relationship with his mother and brother. In other words it was a personally revealing book. This second part, by comparison, is in many ways more typical of a footballer's autobiography, focusing on match details and brief, albeit personal, pen pictures of the characters involved. For regular consumers of books covering this era of football there is little new or surprising here.

Despite this, the book is well-written, thoughful and informative. Here this great footballer leaves aside the pain and angst of Munich and transmits something of the sheer quality and competitiveness of football at the highest level. His convictions about teamwork are clear and here you feel is where he was most comfortable, immersed in what he did best alongside others of the same kind, where the only questions were how to play and how to win.

Finally, there are some striking glances into just how accessible top footballers used to be. For example, this most famous of Englishmen popped out to do some shopping on the morning of playing in the World Cup Final, in the capital city of his own country. I can vouch for this as I once wandered up his front drive, after he was a World and European Cup winner, and while he was hoovering the inside of his car I had a chat and obtained an autograph. For anyone who grew up watching Sir Bobby and remembers the era when he was simply the best English player alive then this book is a must-buy complement to volume one.

A must have 2-part autobiography for any serious sports fan, 15 Nov 2008
Nothing annoys me more than sports men and women writing their autobiography's after some brief initial success before disappearing into the abyss of the unsustainables...... Bobby Charlton 'scores' again firstly by employing an award winning ghost writer making the reading a real pleasure but also by having enough great stories to tell having had long and eventful sporting life. This book, as the cover suggests, chronicles Mr. Charlton's England career. The book is also not without humour and without spoiling it for you, his first confrontation with Pele is laugh out loud funny!

An Excellent Sequel, 10 Nov 2008
The original "United Years" did not leave much to be desired as an extraordinary account of the life an extraordinary man. However, the "England Years" proved to be just as compelling and interesting, the book provides the fascinating insight of a hugely influential player on a volatile period of English football and really shouldn't be missed. A great read for any sports fan.

An insiders view of the England football team 1958 to 1970, 07 Nov 2008
Although this is the second part of Bobby Charltons autobiography, it would be more accurate to think of it as being Bobby Charltons biography of the England football team from 1958, when he made his debut, to 1970, when he played his final England game, in the cruel defeat to West Germany in the Mexico World Cup.

As most of his autobiographical details were dealt with in the first book, the Manchester United Years, this book is almost totally devoted to football and there is very little of Bobby Charlton the man (as opposed to Bobby Charlton the footballer) in it. This is not meant as a critism because, like the first one, this is an excellent book.

It is largely forgotten now but fifty years ago the England football team was in a bit of the mess. At one stage - between 1958 & 1959 - they only won one game in eleven, and that was against an extremely weak USA team. As this book explains, the then manager, Walter Winterbottom, tried his best to build a winning team but he had an impossible task because in those days the England manager had very limited powers, having to refer most things, even team selection, to an FA committee. It was only after the arrival of the single-minded Alf Ramsey, in 1963, that things started to change for the better.

Being an integral part of Ramseys team (even if Sir Alf made sure that Charlton was aware that not even his place in the team was guaranteed)Bobby Charlton was well placed to cast judgement on his role in turning England into World Champions in 1966. He explains that to win the World Cup, Ramsey built a team containing not the eleven best English players but instead the eleven players who one do the best job as a TEAM. This is why the free scoring Jimmy Greaves did not play in the World Cup Final but instead the lesser talented Geoff Hurst did.

Although, quite rightly, the bulk of the book is about the 1966 World Cup and the build up towards it, Bobby Charltons two other World Cup campaigns, in 1962 & 1970, are well covered. The story of Englands quarter final defeat to West Germany after being two goals up and coasting is particuarly absorbing reading as there were many interesting side stories - Franz Beckenbauers marking job on Charlton, Gordon Banks's bad stomach, Englands capitulation after Charlton was substituted, Bobby Moore being accused of theft - involved.

A very good book, and together with 'The Manchester United Years' surely amongst the best fooball autobiographies ever written.





Will this review appear???, 29 Dec 2008

What a Waste, to quote the man himself.Lamenting the passage of time he allowed to snub his one time friend Mr.Taylor. The Partnership they both enjoyed went the way so many do as one takes the other for granted or rifts occur and eventually parts them. Humble beginnings saw them reach for the sky shooting for the top with unerring accuracy.
It's ironic that his short time at Leeds was over shadowed by his predecessor, Revie. Clough felt his omnipresence like a resident ghost but this would also be the legacy he left at Forest. I also feel that what Clough despised in Revie was a reflection of his own failings. Clough accused Revie of cheating with bribery of referees but when you read about a suitcase full of money..around £15,000 then their traits were quite similar.
A compulsive read which Hamilton has more than done justice to.

Genius, 09 Oct 2008
This book is fantastic. Not a biography, not exactly a memoir, but instead a series of reflections of twenty years spent with Ol Big Ead himself. Clough was a one off - brilliant, impossible, bonkers, infuriating, despicable, loveable, untameable. He took a nothing provincial club and went and won the European Cup. Twice. Unbelieveable.

And this book does the man justice. Crucially, it also does Peter Taylor justice; describing their symbiotic partnership. It also brings back a real nostalgia for the times when footballers weren't pampered prima donnas earning £150k a week. They liked a pint, and a fag, when apprentices had to clean the pros boots, and the game was simpler, less bloated. And when there was room for real characters. And this is a loving but seemingly honest portrait of the biggest character of them all. Demands to be read alongside "The Damned United".

The best of the Clough books, 11 Sep 2008
Just when you thought everything that could be written about Brian Clough had been written, along comes Duncan Hamilton and trumps the lot of them. There are very few, if any, people that stayed with Clough throughout his time at Forest, and no one had the access to Cloughie that Hamilton enjoyed.

To say the book is about Clough, however, is a bit misleading. It's more about his relationship with Hamilton, and how he plays the father figure to the young Nottingham Evening Post journalist. One review criticises the book for going into Clough's more unsavoury characteristics - the drink, the bullying, the whole treatment of Peter Taylor - but I applaud Hamilton for this. In revealing Clough's flaws, you see the vulnerability of the man, making him more human and endearing in the process, rather than the quote machine that others writers have presented him as. Hamilton never pretends to know what Clough was thinking - as David Peace did in the inferior, over-rated Damned United - and indeed Clough's unpredictability is a central theme to the book. Hamilton simply presents the facts as he saw them.

There will never be another Brian Clough, more's the pity, but Duncan Hamilton has provided us with a fitting testament to the man's career. The book is as good as sports writing gets, and it was fully deserving of its William Hill Sports Book of the Year award. Cloughie's character and legend are so strong that there will be dozens of books written about him in the years to come, but none will come close to this fine work.

A Big Story..., 16 Jul 2008
Excellent, straightforward sports biography, distinguished by Hamilton's closeness to his subject and the resulting intimacy of the portrait. No tricks, no fiction or imagined scenes, just sensitive writing and informed analysis of the Clough career and of a very different time in British football - a big enough story in its own right to require very little embroidery.

Duncan Hamilton makes no bones about how fortunate he was to be allowed unparalleled access to the force of nature that was Brian Clough. The portrait that emerges seems to come from something for which 'love' is maybe the only appropriate word; it's to Hamilton's credit that it never seems like obsession as, throughout, he is remarkably clear-eyed about Clough's weaknesses as well as his astonishing triumphs. The excellent and detailed accounts of how Clough took not one but two poor-to-middling English clubs to the heights of European glory (a feat that one struggles to imagine being repeated today) are balanced by an understanding of his very human insecurities and frailties, and by an increasingly dominant subtext - a (literally) sobering account of how low even a character as powerful as Clough could be laid by alcohol.


His favourite word was`s*ithouse`!, 09 Jul 2008
This is one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read. I am old enough to remember Clough at his managerial peak in the seventies. What he managed to achieve at two relatively small clubs will never be repeated. Also, I had often wondered why he and his friend/assistant Peter Taylor fell out and Duncan Hamilton explains the whole sorry tale. Do yourself a favour and buy this book.

Just can not put it down, 15 Dec 2008
Excellent research into the last 50 years of LFC, brilliant analysis into the players and managers. Paul is a brilliant writer...an optimist and a realist all rolled into one.


John Furness loved Dynasty, 09 Nov 2008
An absolutely outstanding read, and the best attempt I've ever found (by a long chalk) to bring some science to the evaluation of team performance / achievement, individual player contribution and managerial capability. It generated some fascinating findings and interesting discussion points. The anecdotes were excellent too, and even for an avid fan like me of over 40 years standing there was information I hadn't been aware of and stories I hadn't heard. Congratulations on an amazing piece of work, that should be made compulsory reading for lazy journalists and TV pundits so that they might base their opinions on facts. John Furness

Essential Reading, 22 Oct 2008
Given the volume of material available on the unique history of Liverpool Football Club, it was difficult to imagine that a book celebrating 50 years of `Shankly's Liverpool' could offer such a fresh view of the goings-on at the club throughout that period. This idea of the book is not simply to discuss the many, many events that helped shape the `Dynasty', but to focus on the main people involved, and how each of them have contributed in their own way, to compare and contrast the reigns of each of the eight men in charge, but also to compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of the rivals at each time and put the successes and failures into their historical context.

Each of the managers are analyzed in an extremely comprehensive manner in several different categories, including the strength of the team they inherited, their record in the transfer market, their record on the pitch and, ultimately, their legacy. In order to help contrast the transfer records of the managers, he uses what I found to be a superbly detailed scoring system which helps to rank the best and the worst of each manager. Also on offer here is key information relating to spending power of the club as well as that of their rivals during each reign which leaves the reader with no doubt as to the difficulties facing each manager, without ever stopping to use the greater financial power of other clubs as an excuse for relative failure.

Another key point of the book is that none of the men under discussion are ever glamorized. While the strengths are discussed, so too are the weaknesses, none of which slip under the radar in a bid to compare one manager favourably against another. Despite the large quantity of data and statistics on offer in this book, it's main strength is in the narrative. Never does the reader feel weighed down by the data coming their way, rather, the facts and figures come in a manner that is extremely easy to follow and at times utterly fascinating. The structure of the book leads to a very comfortable read that I would recommend to anyone with even a passing interest in football.


Dynasty - a brilliant read, 16 Oct 2008
I've got all of Paul Tomkins' book and I have to say this is my favourite by far. Where previous books like Golden Past, Red Future and Red Revival used specific seasons as the background topic, Dynasty uses a few decades from the start of the Shankly era to the present day. I make a living working in statistics and whilst this book uses stats as evidence behind every point I particularly enjoyed this book purely as a review of the last 40 odd years in Liverpool history. Well written and nothing like as annoyingly partisan as a lot of books written by Liverpool fans this is a great read, one that I'd highly recommend

Superb Stuff for LFC die hard fans, 06 Oct 2008
I am one of the fans of Paul Tomkins books and one of the lucky receiver of the pre-released signed copy.

I just couldnt put it down, and for the LFC fan out there, this book really can give us knowledge of what have been done from scratch before by Shankly and Paisley to bring LFC to the golden era in footballing sense, and what is being done by the latest manager, Rafa, to bring us back to the place we, LFC all around the world belong.

I just hope this book is thicker than it is!

A well rendered telling of England's glory years, 04 Jan 2009
A year after the publication of Bobby Charlton's outstanding `My Manchester United Years' comes volume two - concerning his England career, which spanned 106 caps and an unprecedented four World Cup Finals.

No living player is better qualified to write about their experiences with England than Charlton, whose time in an England shirt spanned from the monochrome era of Tom Finney to that of Peter Shilton (whom even I, a thirty year old, recall as an England player).

The problem with it, particularly in the pre-Ramsey years, is that too little material is stretched out. Most other players combine their club and international volumes into a single volume. The length of Charlton's England career allows him to do two books - but in the context of a player's career, 106 games is the equivalent of a couple of seasons. It would be a bit like David Beckham writing `My LA Galaxy Years' in forty years time.

There is also a sense that he plays up to his status as the grand old man of English football. And who could blame him? He has, after all, won everything there is to be won in a career marked with courage, dignity and distinction. But the tone can seem fogeyish and at worst rambling, inane, and not true to Bobby Charlton's voice. After all, could you imagine him saying the following passage?

"Perhaps he decided that in this new world of football, of changing formations and the clearest evidence that in terms of ball skills and tactical subtleties many rival nations had passed us by, we need, as another embattled public figure, Prime Minister John Major, would later say `to get back to basics'."

Fortunately, most of the rest of the book isn't as horribly written as this, and by the time Alf Ramsey comes on board this volume hits full pace. The insights into the imperceptible Ramsey are compelling and better dealt with than by the likes of Alan Ball and Nobby Stiles in recent years. Charlton is particularly good on the routines and intensely close camp in the run up to the 1966 World Cup. He makes clear the debt of gratitude that the nation owes Alf Ramsey and he was surprisingly accepting of the way in which he was dropped by him after the 1970 World Cup.

Criticisms, however, tend to be oblique. I was surprised that there wasn't greater anger at the disgusting way Alf Ramsey and Bobby Moore were latterly treated by the FA. Perhaps he doesn't want to upset friends in high places? On the other hand, Peter Bonetti is singled out (albeit in Sir Bobby's roundabout way) for the defeat to West Germany in 1970.

In sum this is a decent companion to Sir Bobby's first volume of memoirs, even if it is slow to get going and, particularly in the early pages, there is a sense that his publishers are milking him for everything. Perhaps it fails by comparison to volume one, which was one of the best sporting memoirs of recent years. On its own merits, however, this is often a compelling story, generally well told if not sometimes eccentrically structured and strangely written - but it beats hands down any one of the turgid offerings by the current crop of underperforming England stars.

More England than Bobby, 21 Nov 2008
This is the second part of Sir Bobby Charlton's fascinating autobiography. In the first, "My Manchester United Years", he provided a lot of moving personal insight into, for example, his trauma post-Munich air disaster, how the club dealt with the other surviving players and their families, and his, at times, difficult relationship with his mother and brother. In other words it was a personally revealing book. This second part, by comparison, is in many ways more typical of a footballer's autobiography, focusing on match details and brief, albeit personal, pen pictures of the characters involved. For regular consumers of books covering this era of football there is little new or surprising here.

Despite this, the book is well-written, thoughful and informative. Here this great footballer leaves aside the pain and angst of Munich and transmits something of the sheer quality and competitiveness of football at the highest level. His convictions about teamwork are clear and here you feel is where he was most comfortable, immersed in what he did best alongside others of the same kind, where the only questions were how to play and how to win.

Finally, there are some striking glances into just how accessible top footballers used to be. For example, this most famous of Englishmen popped out to do some shopping on the morning of playing in the World Cup Final, in the capital city of his own country. I can vouch for this as I once wandered up his front drive, after he was a World and European Cup winner, and while he was hoovering the inside of his car I had a chat and obtained an autograph. For anyone who grew up watching Sir Bobby and remembers the era when he was simply the best English player alive then this book is a must-buy complement to volume one.

A must have 2-part autobiography for any serious sports fan, 15 Nov 2008
Nothing annoys me more than sports men and women writing their autobiography's after some brief initial success before disappearing into the abyss of the unsustainables...... Bobby Charlton 'scores' again firstly by employing an award winning ghost writer making the reading a real pleasure but also by having enough great stories to tell having had long and eventful sporting life. This book, as the cover suggests, chronicles Mr. Charlton's England career. The book is also not without humour and without spoiling it for you, his first confrontation with Pele is laugh out loud funny!

An Excellent Sequel, 10 Nov 2008
The original "United Years" did not leave much to be desired as an extraordinary account of the life an extraordinary man. However, the "England Years" proved to be just as compelling and interesting, the book provides the fascinating insight of a hugely influential player on a volatile period of English football and really shouldn't be missed. A great read for any sports fan.

An insiders view of the England football team 1958 to 1970, 07 Nov 2008
Although this is the second part of Bobby Charltons autobiography, it would be more accurate to think of it as being Bobby Charltons biography of the England football team from 1958, when he made his debut, to 1970, when he played his final England game, in the cruel defeat to West Germany in the Mexico World Cup.

As most of his autobiographical details were dealt with in the first book, the Manchester United Years, this book is almost totally devoted to football and there is very little of Bobby Charlton the man (as opposed to Bobby Charlton the footballer) in it. This is not meant as a critism because, like the first one, this is an excellent book.

It is largely forgotten now but fifty years ago the England football team was in a bit of the mess. At one stage - between 1958 & 1959 - they only won one game in eleven, and that was against an extremely weak USA team. As this book explains, the then manager, Walter Winterbottom, tried his best to build a winning team but he had an impossible task because in those days the England manager had very limited powers, having to refer most things, even team selection, to an FA committee. It was only after the arrival of the single-minded Alf Ramsey, in 1963, that things started to change for the better.

Being an integral part of Ramseys team (even if Sir Alf made sure that Charlton was aware that not even his place in the team was guaranteed)Bobby Charlton was well placed to cast judgement on his role in turning England into World Champions in 1966. He explains that to win the World Cup, Ramsey built a team containing not the eleven best English players but instead the eleven players who one do the best job as a TEAM. This is why the free scoring Jimmy Greaves did not play in the World Cup Final but instead the lesser talented Geoff Hurst did.

Although, quite rightly, the bulk of the book is about the 1966 World Cup and the build up towards it, Bobby Charltons two other World Cup campaigns, in 1962 & 1970, are well covered. The story of Englands quarter final defeat to West Germany after being two goals up and coasting is particuarly absorbing reading as there were many interesting side stories - Franz Beckenbauers marking job on Charlton, Gordon Banks's bad stomach, Englands capitulation after Charlton was substituted, Bobby Moore being accused of theft - involved.

A very good book, and together with 'The Manchester United Years' surely amongst the best fooball autobiographies ever written.





Will this review appear???, 29 Dec 2008

What a Waste, to quote the man himself.Lamenting the passage of time he allowed to snub his one time friend Mr.Taylor. The Partnership they both enjoyed went the way so many do as one takes the other for granted or rifts occur and eventually parts them. Humble beginnings saw them reach for the sky shooting for the top with unerring accuracy.
It's ironic that his short time at Leeds was over shadowed by his predecessor, Revie. Clough felt his omnipresence like a resident ghost but this would also be the legacy he left at Forest. I also feel that what Clough despised in Revie was a reflection of his own failings. Clough accused Revie of cheating with bribery of referees but when you read about a suitcase full of money..around £15,000 then their traits were quite similar.
A compulsive read which Hamilton has more than done justice to.

Genius, 09 Oct 2008
This book is fantastic. Not a biography, not exactly a memoir, but instead a series of reflections of twenty years spent with Ol Big Ead himself. Clough was a one off - brilliant, impossible, bonkers, infuriating, despicable, loveable, untameable. He took a nothing provincial club and went and won the European Cup. Twice. Unbelieveable.

And this book does the man justice. Crucially, it also does Peter Taylor justice; describing their symbiotic partnership. It also brings back a real nostalgia for the times when footballers weren't pampered prima donnas earning £150k a week. They liked a pint, and a fag, when apprentices had to clean the pros boots, and the game was simpler, less bloated. And when there was room for real characters. And this is a loving but seemingly honest portrait of the biggest character of them all. Demands to be read alongside "The Damned United".

The best of the Clough books, 11 Sep 2008
Just when you thought everything that could be written about Brian Clough had been written, along comes Duncan Hamilton and trumps the lot of them. There are very few, if any, people that stayed with Clough throughout his time at Forest, and no one had the access to Cloughie that Hamilton enjoyed.

To say the book is about Clough, however, is a bit misleading. It's more about his relationship with Hamilton, and how he plays the father figure to the young Nottingham Evening Post journalist. One review criticises the book for going into Clough's more unsavoury characteristics - the drink, the bullying, the whole treatment of Peter Taylor - but I applaud Hamilton for this. In revealing Clough's flaws, you see the vulnerability of the man, making him more human and endearing in the process, rather than the quote machine that others writers have presented him as. Hamilton never pretends to know what Clough was thinking - as David Peace did in the inferior, over-rated Damned United - and indeed Clough's unpredictability is a central theme to the book. Hamilton simply presents the facts as he saw them.

There will never be another Brian Clough, more's the pity, but Duncan Hamilton has provided us with a fitting testament to the man's career. The book is as good as sports writing gets, and it was fully deserving of its William Hill Sports Book of the Year award. Cloughie's character and legend are so strong that there will be dozens of books written about him in the years to come, but none will come close to this fine work.

A Big Story..., 16 Jul 2008
Excellent, straightforward sports biography, distinguished by Hamilton's closeness to his subject and the resulting intimacy of the portrait. No tricks, no fiction or imagined scenes, just sensitive writing and informed analysis of the Clough career and of a very different time in British football - a big enough story in its own right to require very little embroidery.

Duncan Hamilton makes no bones about how fortunate he was to be allowed unparalleled access to the force of nature that was Brian Clough. The portrait that emerges seems to come from something for which 'love' is maybe the only appropriate word; it's to Hamilton's credit that it never seems like obsession as, throughout, he is remarkably clear-eyed about Clough's weaknesses as well as his astonishing triumphs. The excellent and detailed accounts of how Clough took not one but two poor-to-middling English clubs to the heights of European glory (a feat that one struggles to imagine being repeated today) are balanced by an understanding of his very human insecurities and frailties, and by an increasingly dominant subtext - a (literally) sobering account of how low even a character as powerful as Clough could be laid by alcohol.


His favourite word was`s*ithouse`!, 09 Jul 2008
This is one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read. I am old enough to remember Clough at his managerial peak in the seventies. What he managed to achieve at two relatively small clubs will never be repeated. Also, I had often wondered why he and his friend/assistant Peter Taylor fell out and Duncan Hamilton explains the whole sorry tale. Do yourself a favour and buy this book.

Just can not put it down, 15 Dec 2008
Excellent research into the last 50 years of LFC, brilliant analysis into the players and managers. Paul is a brilliant writer...an optimist and a realist all rolled into one.


John Furness loved Dynasty, 09 Nov 2008
An absolutely outstanding read, and the best attempt I've ever found (by a long chalk) to bring some science to the evaluation of team performance / achievement, individual player contribution and managerial capability. It generated some fascinating findings and interesting discussion points. The anecdotes were excellent too, and even for an avid fan like me of over 40 years standing there was information I hadn't been aware of and stories I hadn't heard. Congratulations on an amazing piece of work, that should be made compulsory reading for lazy journalists and TV pundits so that they might base their opinions on facts. John Furness

Essential Reading, 22 Oct 2008
Given the volume of material available on the unique history of Liverpool Football Club, it was difficult to imagine that a book celebrating 50 years of `Shankly's Liverpool' could offer such a fresh view of the goings-on at the club throughout that period. This idea of the book is not simply to discuss the many, many events that helped shape the `Dynasty', but to focus on the main people involved, and how each of them have contributed in their own way, to compare and contrast the reigns of each of the eight men in charge, but also to compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of the rivals at each time and put the successes and failures into their historical context.

Each of the managers are analyzed in an extremely comprehensive manner in several different categories, including the strength of the team they inherited, their record in the transfer market, their record on the pitch and, ultimately, their legacy. In order to help contrast the transfer records of the managers, he uses what I found to be a superbly detailed scoring system which helps to rank the best and the worst of each manager. Also on offer here is key information relating to spending power of the club as well as that of their rivals during each reign which leaves the reader with no doubt as to the difficulties facing each manager, without ever stopping to use the greater financial power of other clubs as an excuse for relative failure.

Another key point of the book is that none of the men under discussion are ever glamorized. While the strengths are discussed, so too are the weaknesses, none of which slip under the radar in a bid to compare one manager favourably against another. Despite the large quantity of data and statistics on offer in this book, it's main strength is in the narrative. Never does the reader feel weighed down by the data coming their way, rather, the facts and figures come in a manner that is extremely easy to follow and at times utterly fascinating. The structure of the book leads to a very comfortable read that I would recommend to anyone with even a passing interest in football.


Dynasty - a brilliant read, 16 Oct 2008
I've got all of Paul Tomkins' book and I have to say this is my favourite by far. Where previous books like Golden Past, Red Future and Red Revival used specific seasons as the background topic, Dynasty uses a few decades from the start of the Shankly era to the present day. I make a living working in statistics and whilst this book uses stats as evidence behind every point I particularly enjoyed this book purely as a review of the last 40 odd years in Liverpool history. Well written and nothing like as annoyingly partisan as a lot of books written by Liverpool fans this is a great read, one that I'd highly recommend

Superb Stuff for LFC die hard fans, 06 Oct 2008
I am one of the fans of Paul Tomkins books and one of the lucky receiver of the pre-released signed copy.

I just couldnt put it down, and for the LFC fan out there, this book really can give us knowledge of what have been done from scratch before by Shankly and Paisley to bring LFC to the golden era in footballing sense, and what is being done by the latest manager, Rafa, to bring us back to the place we, LFC all around the world belong.

I just hope this book is thicker than it is!

a great book written by a fan for fans, 04 Jan 2009
After having received this book as a Christmas present amongst the usual Christmas fayre that an exiled scouser usually gets (Liverpool FC , The Beatles stuff) I decided to read this excellent book. If "putdownability" is a quality measure I read it cover to cover in a day.

Reade charts the history of the great club from 1965 to present day, intertwining the clubs success or tragedies with his own. The books foundation is the authors' insight and metaphoric love affair with Shankley and the great red men through to the lows and highs of the clubs history.

The chapter on Heysel and Rome provide the most honest and poignant assessment what happened in 1985 I have ever read. A must for all football fans...particularly Liverpool fans.


GREAT READ!!!!, 12 Nov 2008
this book,written by a die hard liverpool fan and now media writer for the daily mirror is a truly great read...despite being "in the media" the fact he talks about being just a down to earth liverpool fan is very refreshing..no airs and graces,and just like every liverpool fan (myself included!!) hes a ordinary bloke telling his story of following THEE greatest team on earth....from his 1st game at bolton,his mothers death,his son supporting everton!! (to begin with until he saw the light!!) the great games and the fact that he fell foul of graeme souness i couldnt leave this book down...truly great read!!!!

There is more to supporting a football team than football, 13 Aug 2008
Starting from the day in 1965 when his father took him to see Liverpool play at Bolton, Brian Reade has been a Liverpool supporter. In the 43 years since then although he as witnessed many highs - 47 trophies, which supporters of most other clubs can only dream about - but also extreme lows in the 80's with the tragedies at Heysel and Hillsborough.

The books strongest chapters are regarding these two events and their aftermath. Reade passionately describes the guilt and shame felt by Liverpool supporters after Heysel in 1985 and also the anger felt by these same people after the authorities attempted to make them the scapegoats for the disaster at Hillsborough four years later.

When it comes to football, Brian Reade writes as a Liverpool fan and his views are therefore very biased and unobjective. Whilst this makes some of his recollections entertaining, there were too many times when I, as a Bradford City fan, found it a bit annoying when he moans about 'a bad season' after Liverpool had only finished third or fourth in the league! We should be so lucky.

Making up for this though are the excellent chapters about Reades meeting the charismatic Bill Shankly and a very poignant one where he interviews Bob Paisley just as Alzheimers was starting to take a hold. Also worth reading are the bile filled chapters about ex-Chairman Noel White and Graeme Souness, who Reade concedes was a brilliant player for Liverpool but a lousy manager.

Although I suspect that to obtain maximum enjoyment from this book the reader would have to be a Liverpool supporter but anybody that has followed a football team through good times and bad will be able to empathise with much of it and therefore enjoy it. All except Everton and Manchester United fans, that is.


Great title, Great book !!, 15 Jul 2008
The book is written by journalist and football fan, not in any particular order, with a history of working with the Liverpool Post, and sometimes upsetting people with a biast view!!
True Liverpool fans will remember the inspirational words that often came from Shankly`s lips (god rest his soul),` how if he were a bin man he would be the best bin man ever, and the streets of Liverpool would be the cleanest in the world`. This book talks from the same page as that. Its both a cronicle of the rollercoaster that is football and an inspiational read at the same time, some of the memories will lift you, and some will break your heart, but one thing is for sure, you will be touched by the Authors writing.
Some of the strongest chapters follow the darker moments in our glorious history and the are truly heart wrenching. He writes with bitterness about the years of Souness as manager, and who can blame him for that!!
As a long term Kopite I eat and sleep football, and read it when I`m not doing one of the other. There have been some great books about Liverpool over the years and this is among them. I read this on holiday with another book set at Anfield. Soft Target by Conrad Jones, is a fictional thriller set in Liverpool, terrorism and football combined it was shocking....but great reading. The new bio by the great god `Rush` is another excellent read, as is `Gangs of Liverpool ` by Maca.
Give this `43 years with the same bird.Liverpudlian Love Affair a read...you wont be dissapointed

Manchester United My Manchester United Years: The Autobiography - Sir Bobby Charlton

Paperback

Bobby Charlton is Manchester United through and through. He was a member of the original 'Busby Babes' and has devoted his career to the club, playing in 754 games over 17 years. During that period, he won everything the game had to offer, played alongside some of the greats such as Best and Law, suffered devastating defeats and was involved in one of the greatest football tragedies of all time.

Here, for the very first time, he tells the story of those United years. With his beloved Reds, he tasted FA Cup victory in the emotional final of 1963, won three first division championships and in 1968, he reached the pinnacle of club success, winning the European Cup. Inevitably, such highs are balanced with no less dramatic lows, such as the 1957 European Cup semi-final, the highly charged 1958 FA Cup loss which followed only weeks after the horrors of the Munich Air disaster, and the 1969 European Cup defeat by Milan. He is one of the true gentlemen of football and the legacy that Bobby Charlton gives to United is beyond compare.

A well rendered telling of England's glory years, 04 Jan 2009
A year after the publication of Bobby Charlton's outstanding `My Manchester United Years' comes volume two - concerning his England career, which spanned 106 caps and an unprecedented four World Cup Finals.

No living player is better qualified to write about their experiences with England than Charlton, whose time in an England shirt spanned from the monochrome era of Tom Finney to that of Peter Shilton (whom even I, a thirty year old, recall as an England player).

The problem with it, particularly in the pre-Ramsey years, is that too little material is stretched out. Most other players combine their club and international volumes into a single volume. The length of Charlton's England career allows him to do two books - but in the context of a player's career, 106 games is the equivalent of a couple of seasons. It would be a bit like David Beckham writing `My LA Galaxy Years' in forty years time.

There is also a sense that he plays up to his status as the grand old man of English football. And who could blame him? He has, after all, won everything there is to be won in a career marked with courage, dignity and distinction. But the tone can seem fogeyish and at worst rambling, inane, and not true to Bobby Charlton's voice. After all, could you imagine him saying the following passage?

"Perhaps he decided that in this new world of football, of changing formations and the clearest evidence that in terms of ball skills and tactical subtleties many rival nations had passed us by, we need, as another embattled public figure, Prime Minister John Major, would later say `to get back to basics'."

Fortunately, most of the rest of the book isn't as horribly written as this, and by the time Alf Ramsey comes on board this volume hits full pace. The insights into the imperceptible Ramsey are compelling and better dealt with than by the likes of Alan Ball and Nobby Stiles in recent years. Charlton is particularly good on the routines and intensely close camp in the run up to the 1966 World Cup. He makes clear the debt of gratitude that the nation owes Alf Ramsey and he was surprisingly accepting of the way in which he was dropped by him after the 1970 World Cup.

Criticisms, however, tend to be oblique. I was surprised that there wasn't greater anger at the disgusting way Alf Ramsey and Bobby Moore were latterly treated by the FA. Perhaps he doesn't want to upset friends in high places? On the other hand, Peter Bonetti is singled out (albeit in Sir Bobby's roundabout way) for the defeat to West Germany in 1970.

In sum this is a decent companion to Sir Bobby's first volume of memoirs, even if it is slow to get going and, particularly in the early pages, there is a sense that his publishers are milking him for everything. Perhaps it fails by comparison to volume one, which was one of the best sporting memoirs of recent years. On its own merits, however, this is often a compelling story, generally well told if not sometimes eccentrically structured and strangely written - but it beats hands down any one of the turgid offerings by the current crop of underperforming England stars.

More England than Bobby, 21 Nov 2008
This is the second part of Sir Bobby Charlton's fascinating autobiography. In the first, "My Manchester United Years", he provided a lot of moving personal insight into, for example, his trauma post-Munich air disaster, how the club dealt with the other surviving players and their families, and his, at times, difficult relationship with his mother and brother. In other words it was a personally revealing book. This second part, by comparison, is in many ways more typical of a footballer's autobiography, focusing on match details and brief, albeit personal, pen pictures of the characters involved. For regular consumers of books covering this era of football there is little new or surprising here.

Despite this, the book is well-written, thoughful and informative. Here this great footballer leaves aside the pain and angst of Munich and transmits something of the sheer quality and competitiveness of football at the highest level. His convictions about teamwork are clear and here you feel is where he was most comfortable, immersed in what he did best alongside others of the same kind, where the only questions were how to play and how to win.

Finally, there are some striking glances into just how accessible top footballers used to be. For example, this most famous of Englishmen popped out to do some shopping on the morning of playing in the World Cup Final, in the capital city of his own country. I can vouch for this as I once wandered up his front drive, after he was a World and European Cup winner, and while he was hoovering the inside of his car I had a chat and obtained an autograph. For anyone who grew up watching Sir Bobby and remembers the era when he was simply the best English player alive then this book is a must-buy complement to volume one.

A must have 2-part autobiography for any serious sports fan, 15 Nov 2008
Nothing annoys me more than sports men and women writing their autobiography's after some brief initial success before disappearing into the abyss of the unsustainables...... Bobby Charlton 'scores' again firstly by employing an award winning ghost writer making the reading a real pleasure but also by having enough great stories to tell having had long and eventful sporting life. This book, as the cover suggests, chronicles Mr. Charlton's England career. The book is also not without humour and without spoiling it for you, his first confrontation with Pele is laugh out loud funny!

An Excellent Sequel, 10 Nov 2008
The original "United Years" did not leave much to be desired as an extraordinary account of the life an extraordinary man. However, the "England Years" proved to be just as compelling and interesting, the book provides the fascinating insight of a hugely influential player on a volatile period of English football and really shouldn't be missed. A great read for any sports fan.

An insiders view of the England football team 1958 to 1970, 07 Nov 2008
Although this is the second part of Bobby Charltons autobiography, it would be more accurate to think of it as being Bobby Charltons biography of the England football team from 1958, when he made his debut, to 1970, when he played his final England game, in the cruel defeat to West Germany in the Mexico World Cup.

As most of his autobiographical details were dealt with in the first book, the Manchester United Years, this book is almost totally devoted to football and there is very little of Bobby Charlton the man (as opposed to Bobby Charlton the footballer) in it. This is not meant as a critism because, like the first one, this is an excellent book.

It is largely forgotten now but fifty years ago the England football team was in a bit of the mess. At one stage - between 1958 & 1959 - they only won one game in eleven, and that was against an extremely weak USA team. As this book explains, the then manager, Walter Winterbottom, tried his best to build a winning team but he had an impossible task because in those days the England manager had very limited powers, having to refer most things, even team selection, to an FA committee. It was only after the arrival of the single-minded Alf Ramsey, in 1963, that things started to change for the better.

Being an integral part of Ramseys team (even if Sir Alf made sure that Charlton was aware that not even his place in the team was guaranteed)Bobby Charlton was well placed to cast judgement on his role in turning England into World Champions in 1966. He explains that to win the World Cup, Ramsey built a team containing not the eleven best English players but instead the eleven players who one do the best job as a TEAM. This is why the free scoring Jimmy Greaves did not play in the World Cup Final but instead the lesser talented Geoff Hurst did.

Although, quite rightly, the bulk of the book is about the 1966 World Cup and the build up towards it, Bobby Charltons two other World Cup campaigns, in 1962 & 1970, are well covered. The story of Englands quarter final defeat to West Germany after being two goals up and coasting is particuarly absorbing reading as there were many interesting side stories - Franz Beckenbauers marking job on Charlton, Gordon Banks's bad stomach, Englands capitulation after Charlton was substituted, Bobby Moore being accused of theft - involved.

A very good book, and together with 'The Manchester United Years' surely amongst the best fooball autobiographies ever written.





Will this review appear???, 29 Dec 2008

What a Waste, to quote the man himself.Lamenting the passage of time he allowed to snub his one time friend Mr.Taylor. The Partnership they both enjoyed went the way so many do as one takes the other for granted or rifts occur and eventually parts them. Humble beginnings saw them reach for the sky shooting for the top with unerring accuracy.
It's ironic that his short time at Leeds was over shadowed by his predecessor, Revie. Clough felt his omnipresence like a resident ghost but this would also be the legacy he left at Forest. I also feel that what Clough despised in Revie was a reflection of his own failings. Clough accused Revie of cheating with bribery of referees but when you read about a suitcase full of money..around £15,000 then their traits were quite similar.
A compulsive read which Hamilton has more than done justice to.

Genius, 09 Oct 2008
This book is fantastic. Not a biography, not exactly a memoir, but instead a series of reflections of twenty years spent with Ol Big Ead himself. Clough was a one off - brilliant, impossible, bonkers, infuriating, despicable, loveable, untameable. He took a nothing provincial club and went and won the European Cup. Twice. Unbelieveable.

And this book does the man justice. Crucially, it also does Peter Taylor justice; describing their symbiotic partnership. It also brings back a real nostalgia for the times when footballers weren't pampered prima donnas earning £150k a week. They liked a pint, and a fag, when apprentices had to clean the pros boots, and the game was simpler, less bloated. And when there was room for real characters. And this is a loving but seemingly honest portrait of the biggest character of them all. Demands to be read alongside "The Damned United".

The best of the Clough books, 11 Sep 2008
Just when you thought everything that could be written about Brian Clough had been written, along comes Duncan Hamilton and trumps the lot of them. There are very few, if any, people that stayed with Clough throughout his time at Forest, and no one had the access to Cloughie that Hamilton enjoyed.

To say the book is about Clough, however, is a bit misleading. It's more about his relationship with Hamilton, and how he plays the father figure to the young Nottingham Evening Post journalist. One review criticises the book for going into Clough's more unsavoury characteristics - the drink, the bullying, the whole treatment of Peter Taylor - but I applaud Hamilton for this. In revealing Clough's flaws, you see the vulnerability of the man, making him more human and endearing in the process, rather than the quote machine that others writers have presented him as. Hamilton never pretends to know what Clough was thinking - as David Peace did in the inferior, over-rated Damned United - and indeed Clough's unpredictability is a central theme to the book. Hamilton simply presents the facts as he saw them.

There will never be another Brian Clough, more's the pity, but Duncan Hamilton has provided us with a fitting testament to the man's career. The book is as good as sports writing gets, and it was fully deserving of its William Hill Sports Book of the Year award. Cloughie's character and legend are so strong that there will be dozens of books written about him in the years to come, but none will come close to this fine work.

A Big Story..., 16 Jul 2008
Excellent, straightforward sports biography, distinguished by Hamilton's closeness to his subject and the resulting intimacy of the portrait. No tricks, no fiction or imagined scenes, just sensitive writing and informed analysis of the Clough career and of a very different time in British football - a big enough story in its own right to require very little embroidery.

Duncan Hamilton makes no bones about how fortunate he was to be allowed unparalleled access to the force of nature that was Brian Clough. The portrait that emerges seems to come from something for which 'love' is maybe the only appropriate word; it's to Hamilton's credit that it never seems like obsession as, throughout, he is remarkably clear-eyed about Clough's weaknesses as well as his astonishing triumphs. The excellent and detailed accounts of how Clough took not one but two poor-to-middling English clubs to the heights of European glory (a feat that one struggles to imagine being repeated today) are balanced by an understanding of his very human insecurities and frailties, and by an increasingly dominant subtext - a (literally) sobering account of how low even a character as powerful as Clough could be laid by alcohol.


His favourite word was`s*ithouse`!, 09 Jul 2008
This is one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read. I am old enough to remember Clough at his managerial peak in the seventies. What he managed to achieve at two relatively small clubs will never be repeated. Also, I had often wondered why he and his friend/assistant Peter Taylor fell out and Duncan Hamilton explains the whole sorry tale. Do yourself a favour and buy this book.

Just can not put it down, 15 Dec 2008
Excellent research into the last 50 years of LFC, brilliant analysis into the players and managers. Paul is a brilliant writer...an optimist and a realist all rolled into one.


John Furness loved Dynasty, 09 Nov 2008
An absolutely outstanding read, and the best attempt I've ever found (by a long chalk) to bring some science to the evaluation of team performance / achievement, individual player contribution and managerial capability. It generated some fascinating findings and interesting discussion points. The anecdotes were excellent too, and even for an avid fan like me of over 40 years standing there was information I hadn't been aware of and stories I hadn't heard. Congratulations on an amazing piece of work, that should be made compulsory reading for lazy journalists and TV pundits so that they might base their opinions on facts. John Furness

Essential Reading, 22 Oct 2008
Given the volume of material available on the unique history of Liverpool Football Club, it was difficult to imagine that a book celebrating 50 years of `Shankly's Liverpool' could offer such a fresh view of the goings-on at the club throughout that period. This idea of the book is not simply to discuss the many, many events that helped shape the `Dynasty', but to focus on the main people involved, and how each of them have contributed in their own way, to compare and contrast the reigns of each of the eight men in charge, but also to compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of the rivals at each time and put the successes and failures into their historical context.

Each of the managers are analyzed in an extremely comprehensive manner in several different categories, including the strength of the team they inherited, their record in the transfer market, their record on the pitch and, ultimately, their legacy. In order to help contrast the transfer records of the managers, he uses what I found to be a superbly detailed scoring system which helps to rank the best and the worst of each manager. Also on offer here is key information relating to spending power of the club as well as that of their rivals during each reign which leaves the reader with no doubt as to the difficulties facing each manager, without ever stopping to use the greater financial power of other clubs as an excuse for relative failure.

Another key point of the book is that none of the men under discussion are ever glamorized. While the strengths are discussed, so too are the weaknesses, none of which slip under the radar in a bid to compare one manager favourably against another. Despite the large quantity of data and statistics on offer in this book, it's main strength is in the narrative. Never does the reader feel weighed down by the data coming their way, rather, the facts and figures come in a manner that is extremely easy to follow and at times utterly fascinating. The structure of the book leads to a very comfortable read that I would recommend to anyone with even a passing interest in football.


Dynasty - a brilliant read, 16 Oct 2008
I've got all of Paul Tomkins' book and I have to say this is my favourite by far. Where previous books like Golden Past, Red Future and Red Revival used specific seasons as the background topic, Dynasty uses a few decades from the start of the Shankly era to the present day. I make a living working in statistics and whilst this book uses stats as evidence behind every point I particularly enjoyed this book purely as a review of the last 40 odd years in Liverpool history. Well written and nothing like as annoyingly partisan as a lot of books written by Liverpool fans this is a great read, one that I'd highly recommend

Superb Stuff for LFC die hard fans, 06 Oct 2008
I am one of the fans of Paul Tomkins books and one of the lucky receiver of the pre-released signed copy.

I just couldnt put it down, and for the LFC fan out there, this book really can give us knowledge of what have been done from scratch before by Shankly and Paisley to bring LFC to the golden era in footballing sense, and what is being done by the latest manager, Rafa, to bring us back to the place we, LFC all around the world belong.

I just hope this book is thicker than it is!

a great book written by a fan for fans, 04 Jan 2009
After having received this book as a Christmas present amongst the usual Christmas fayre that an exiled scouser usually gets (Liverpool FC , The Beatles stuff) I decided to read this excellent book. If "putdownability" is a quality measure I read it cover to cover in a day.

Reade charts the history of the great club from 1965 to present day, intertwining the clubs success or tragedies with his own. The books foundation is the authors' insight and metaphoric love affair with Shankley and the great red men through to the lows and highs of the clubs history.

The chapter on Heysel and Rome provide the most honest and poignant assessment what happened in 1985 I have ever read. A must for all football fans...particularly Liverpool fans.


GREAT READ!!!!, 12 Nov 2008
this book,written by a die hard liverpool fan and now media writer for the daily mirror is a truly great read...despite being "in the media" the fact he talks about being just a down to earth liverpool fan is very refreshing..no airs and graces,and just like every liverpool fan (myself included!!) hes a ordinary bloke telling his story of following THEE greatest team on earth....from his 1st game at bolton,his mothers death,his son supporting everton!! (to begin with until he saw the light!!) the great games and the fact that he fell foul of graeme souness i couldnt leave this book down...truly great read!!!!

There is more to supporting a football team than football, 13 Aug 2008
Starting from the day in 1965 when his father took him to see Liverpool play at Bolton, Brian Reade has been a Liverpool supporter. In the 43 years since then although he as witnessed many highs - 47 trophies, which supporters of most other clubs can only dream about - but also extreme lows in the 80's with the tragedies at Heysel and Hillsborough.

The books strongest chapters are regarding these two events and their aftermath. Reade passionately describes the guilt and shame felt by Liverpool supporters after Heysel in 1985 and also the anger felt by these same people after the authorities attempted to make them the scapegoats for the disaster at Hillsborough four years later.

When it comes to football, Brian Reade writes as a Liverpool fan and his views are therefore very biased and unobjective. Whilst this makes some of his recollections entertaining, there were too many times when I, as a Bradford City fan, found it a bit annoying when he moans about 'a bad season' after Liverpool had only finished third or fourth in the league! We should be so lucky.

Making up for this though are the excellent chapters about Reades meeting the charismatic Bill Shankly and a very poignant one where he interviews Bob Paisley just as Alzheimers was starting to take a hold. Also worth reading are the bile filled chapters about ex-Chairman Noel White and Graeme Souness, who Reade concedes was a brilliant player for Liverpool but a lousy manager.

Although I suspect that to obtain maximum enjoyment from this book the reader would have to be a Liverpool supporter but anybody that has followed a football team through good times and bad will be able to empathise with much of it and therefore enjoy it. All except Everton and Manchester United fans, that is.


Great title, Great book !!, 15 Jul 2008
The book is written by journalist and football fan, not in any particular order, with a history of working with the Liverpool Post, and sometimes upsetting people with a biast view!!
True Liverpool fans will remember the inspirational words that often came from Shankly`s lips (god rest his soul),` how if he were a bin man he would be the best bin man ever, and the streets of Liverpool would be the cleanest in the world`. This book talks from the same page as that. Its both a cronicle of the rollercoaster that is football and an inspiational read at the same time, some of the memories will lift you, and some will break your heart, but one thing is for sure, you will be touched by the Authors writing.
Some of the strongest chapters follow the darker moments in our glorious history and the are truly heart wrenching. He writes with bitterness about the years of Souness as manager, and who can blame him for that!!
As a long term Kopite I eat and sleep football, and read it when I`m not doing one of the other. There have been some great books about Liverpool over the years and this is among them. I read this on holiday with another book set at Anfield. Soft Target by Conrad Jones, is a fictional thriller set in Liverpool, terrorism and football combined it was shocking....but great reading. The new bio by the great god `Rush` is another excellent read, as is `Gangs of Liverpool ` by Maca.
Give this `43 years with the same bird.Liverpudlian Love Affair a read...you wont be dissapointed

True World Class, 07 Sep 2008
I always admired Bobby Charlton as a footballer but thought he seemed a little distant as a man. This well-written autobiography seeks to redress that balance and my overall impression is of a man who recognised his own talent but was also generous in that regard to others. No one can fail to be moved by his account of Munich and his clear love for his friends who tragically lost their lives. I wasn't born at the time but as a football fan I wonder how brilliant that team would have been had the air crash not happened.

The press always made a big thing of Charlton and Best not liking each other when the truth is so obviously that here were two immensely talented men who moved in different social circles. Bobby was a family man whereas George was a much younger, single man revelling in the pop-star attention he was receiving. Significantly, Dennis Law who was the other member of this talented triumvirate appeared to lead his own life as well and appeared to have little interest in the game other than playing.

I loved the stories of Nobby Stiles and his propensity to cause mayhem in public. I was also interested in Bobby's explanation of the story surrounding Alex Ferguson prior to his reign becoming successful. I always believed that he would have been sacked if Man Utd had not beaten Forest in that famous FA Cup tie, when in fact, the truth seems considerably different.

Bobby Charlton was a true world-class footballer and his value in the modern game would be astronomical. I dislike autobiographies from 20-something footballers who have hardly lived, but applaud this tome from a man who has had time to reflect upon a very full and successful career. I look forward to reading his memoirs of playing for England. Thoroughly recommeded.

A Great Ambassador, 17 Jul 2008
Bobby Charlton is a survivor and one of the few people who genuinely deserve the accolade of "sporting legend.". At times the first part of his autobiography rather rambles but it is nice to have his own account of his life.

The Charlton story has been chronicled many times. Here Bobby shows just why he is one of this country's greatest footballing ambassadors. The centre point of the book is the Munich air crash disaster that saw the Busby Babes decimated with the loss of many players including the incomparable Duncan Edwards who has been held up by many to be the greatest ever English footballer. Lives were cut short and Charlton was left to wonder just why he had been saved and got out of the crash with just a few cuts and bruises.

We hear that he has been haunted by the crash virtually everyday of his life. But Charlton is a survivor who came to terms with the losses and helped to re-build Manchester United. Here he reminisces on the past, the great players such as Law and Best and today's young Lions. He heralds Paul Scoles as the ultimate and complete professional football (despite leaving him out of his best ever Manchester United team).

Charlton is never going to be confrontational or controversial, but there are some interesting passages here which suggest that a contributory factor to the Munich crash was the need to return to the United Kingdom due to a directive from the Football Association. Charlton also comments on the lack of support from Alan Hardacre of the FA for European Football and the vision from Sir Matt Busby that Europe was the future of football (and how true has this been). He also tackles the family feuds between himself, his brother Jack, his wife and his strong willed mother. There is a great honesty about this book as you would expect from such a gentleman. The book also includes his post Manchester years before returning to the club as a director.

Charlton names his best ever Manchester XI. He is far too modest to include himself in this team. Other people must do this for him. And whilst accepting his laudatory comments regarding Paul Scoles I have to say that the author himself is probably the perfect professional and possibly (just possibly) England's greatest player of all time. It says much for the modesty of the author that the book is almost written as an outsider looking in and marvelling at the skills of others. I had the honour a number of years ago of talking to Bobby Charlton about his soccer school for a newspaper article. I found him quite a difficult man to talk to as he seemed rather shy. Reading this book shows that he has always shunned publicity and obviously takes a little bit of getting to know. I look forward to the second volume of his autobiography that deals with the England years and obviously focuses on the 1966 World Cup triumph.

Typical of the man., 09 Mar 2008
Bobby Charlton is one of the most unassuming people you could wish to meet. Some describe him as dour and too ser