Did you know that the first FA Cup Final was attended by just 2000 people? Want to know more?
This is a wonderful book for any football fans out there interested in the history of the game, facts and figures, football trivia and much, much more. It is beautifully illustrated with photos of football memorabilia and reproductions of cartoons and illustrations from the glorious game.
Calling all football fans: settle down in your favourite armchair, fix yourself a drink, and prepare to wallow lengthily, indulgently and nostalgically in the must-have football book of 2007 from one of the UK’s best-loved writers on football.
Beautifully designed, affectionately written, and lavishly illustrated, this is a football book for boys and girls of all ages, written and presented in the spirit and style of the annuals that adorned the game’s golden age. The Bumper Book of Football delivers a feast of facts, feats and anecdotes relating to every conceivable aspect of the world’s most popular game: how it began, and how its rules developed; the stories of the great clubs, legendary managers, epic games and great players (including today’s top premiership stars); bizarre facts and records; origins of footballing words and phrases; famous football quotes; plus footballing nicknames and superstitions.
But The Bumper Book of Football is not merely a rich source of football information and entertainment, it also provides practical guidance on such matters as how to become a footballer, how to start and manage a collection of footballing memorabilia, and how to become a demon autograph-hunter. And, last but not least, like any self-respecting bumper book, it includes an exciting story – A Moral Dilemma for Wayne, written especially for The Bumper Book of Football by Hunter Davies, and concerning the exploits of aspiring schoolboy footballer Wayne Wright.
As appealing to the boy or girl who is anxious to find out more about the game as it is to the seasoned fan looking for a footballing gift book or memento, The Bumper Book of Football looks set to find its way into Christmas stockings the length and breadth of the land.
Hunter Davies was born in Renfrew in 1936. He has written more than 40 books and, as a journalist he contributes to the Sunday Times and writes a weekly football column in the New Statesman. He is an avid collector of football memorabilia. He lives with his wife in the Lake District and in London.
