"I jump into a sand pit for a living"
The random history of football
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Justyn Barnes and Aubrey Day, London, Prion (Carlton), 2015. ISBN 978-1-85375-936-9
The book, as the title implies, gives a very random history of football in 120 incidents arranged in chronological orders. All the incidents are factual but often embellished or described in an imaginative way. I enjoyed, for example, the post 1883 FA Coop Final interview with Lord Garth of Crook. (Incidentally it was the Coop final because a Northern team won it!)
My random selection of the key incidents in the history of football is: the first world war footie match, the first World Cup, The Crazy Gang and the WAGS of 2006.
There is some great trivia material, like how an England sub actually played for Wales against England, England World Cup win and the role of Pickles the dog, Jan Tomaszewski -the Polish clown, Jimmy Hill’s contribution and the imagined TV commentary as England beat Germany 5-1.
I was fascinated to read of Rev Robert Walpole Sealy Vidal, who played in the first three FA Cup finals.
It is a small book that will inform, entertain and amuse.