The British Football Film
The British Football Film

Author: Stephen Glynn

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2018-05-03

Total Pages: 255

ISBN-13: 3319777270

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This book constitutes the first full volume dedicated to an academic analysis of British football as depicted on film. From early single-camera silents to its current multi-screen mediations, the repeated treatment of football in British cinema points to the game’s importance not only in the everyday rhythms of national life but also, and especially, its immutable place in the British imaginary landscape. Through close textual analysis together with production and reception histories, this book explores the ways in which professional footballers, amateur players and supporters (the devoted and the demonized) have been represented on the British screen. As well as addressing the joys and sorrows the game necessarily engenders, British football is shown to function as an accessible structure to explore wider issues such as class, race, gender and even the whole notion of ‘Britishness’.

Fever Pitch
Fever Pitch

Author: Nick Hornby

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2005-05-05

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 0141926546

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*WINNER OF THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR* Fever Pitch is Nick Hornby's million-copy-selling, award-winnning football classic 'A spanking 7-0 away win of a football book. . . inventive, honest, funny, heroic, charming' Independent For many people watching football is mere entertainment, to some it's more like a ritual; but to others, its highs and lows provide a narrative to life itself. But, for Nick Hornby, his devotion to the game has provided one of few constants in a life where the meaningful things - like growing up, leaving home and forming relationships, both parental and romantic - have rarely been as simple or as uncomplicated as his love for Arsenal. Brimming with wit and honesty, Fever Pitch, catches perfectly what it really means to be a football fan - and in doing so, what it means to be a man. 'Hornby has put his finger on truths that have been unspoken for generations' Irish Times 'Funny, wise and true' Roddy Doyle

The Game of Our Lives
The Game of Our Lives

Author: David Goldblatt

Publisher: Bold Type Books

Published: 2014-11-11

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 1568585071

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The Game of Our Lives is a masterly portrait of soccer and contemporary Britain. Soccer in the United Kingdom has evolved from a jaded, working-class tradition to a sport at the heart of popular culture, from an economic mess to a booming entertainment industry that has conquered the world. The changes in the game, David Goldblatt shows, uncannily mirror the evolution of British society. In the 1980s, soccer was described as a slum game played by slum people in slum stadiums. Such was the transformation over the following twenty-five years that novelists, politicians, poets, and bankers were all declaring their footballing loyalties. At one point, the Palace let it be known that the queen -- like her mother, Prince Harry, the chief rabbi, and the archbishop of Canterbury -- was an Arsenal fan. Soccer permeated the national life like little else, an atavistic survivor decked out in New Britain flash, a social democratic game in a cutthroat, profit-driven world. From the goals, to the players, to the managers, to the money, Goldblatt describes how the English Premier League (EPL) was forged in Margaret Thatcher's Britain by an alliance of the big clubs -- Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur -- the Football Association, and Rupert Murdoch's Sky TV. Goldblatt argues that no social phenomenon traces the momentous economic, social, and political changes of post-Thatcherite Britain in a more illuminating manner than soccer, and The Game of Our Lives provides the definitive social history of the EPL -- the most popular soccer league in the world.

The British Boxing Film
The British Boxing Film

Author: Stephen Glynn

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-08-20

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 3030742105

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This book constitutes the first full volume dedicated to an academic analysis of the sport of boxing as depicted in British film. Through close textual analysis, production and reception histories and readings that establish social, cultural and political contexts, the book explores the ways in which prizefighters, amateur boxers, managers and supporters (from Regency gentry to East End gangsters) are represented on the British screen. Exploring a complex and controversial sport, it addresses not only the pain-versus-reward dilemma that boxing necessarily engenders, but also the frequently censorious attitude of those in authority, with boxing’s social development facilitating a wider study around issues of class, gender and race, latterly contesting the whole notion of ‘Britishness’. Varying in scope from Northern circuit comedies to London-based ‘ladsploitation’ films, from auteur entries by Alfred Hitchcock to programme fillers by E.J. Fancey, the boxing film also serves as a prism through which one can trace major historical shifts in the British film industry.

The Mavericks
The Mavericks

Author: Rob Steen

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2020-06-16

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 1472974859

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Artfully combining sports journalism with social history and sharp pop culture references, The Mavericks explores 1970s football when a cult group of footballers delivered flair on the pitch and flamboyance off of it. Cocky, coiffured strikers meet David Bowie and Alvin Stardust; Gola boots exchange kicks with A Clockwork Orange and The Likely Lads; Admiral sock tags, platform heels and kipper ties mingle with cod wars, Harrods bombings and three-day weeks. In this, Steen recreates the early Seventies, the era when football joined the vanguard of English youth culture. This personal account revolves around seven Englishmen who followed in the trail blazed by football's first tabloid star, George Best--Stan Bowles, Tony Currie, Charlie George, Alan Hudson, Rodney Marsh, Peter Osgood and Frank Worthington. Proud individuals amid an increasingly corporate environment, their invention and artistry were matched only by a disdain for authority and convention. Their belief in football as performance art, as showbiz, gave the game a boost, and elevated them to cult status. During their heyday, nevertheless, they were largely ignored by a succession of England managers, none of whom were able to assemble a side competent enough to qualify for the World Cup finals. Against a backdrop of increasing violence on the field and terraces alike, of battles between players and the Establishment, this book examines an anomaly at the heart of English culture, one that symbolized the death of post-Sixties optimism, the end of innocence.

Encyclopedia of British Football
Encyclopedia of British Football

Author: Richard Cox

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-07-24

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 1000144143

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This reference work aims to provide sports enthusiasts, journalists, librarians, students and scholars with an authorative source of information on a comprehensive range of subjects covering the history and organization of football in Britain. Over 250 entries focus on key organisations or individuals, famous clubs, major competitions, events, venues and incidents, institutions and organisations as well as key issues such as gender, racism, commercialization, professionalism and drugs, alcohol and football.

Sport, Film and National Culture
Sport, Film and National Culture

Author: Seán Crosson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-08-31

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 1000172503

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Sport and film have historically been key components of national cultures and societies. This is the first collection dedicated to examining the intersection of these popular cultural forces within specific national contexts. Covering films of all types, from Hollywood blockbusters to regional documentaries and newsreels, the book considers how filmic depictions of sport have configured and informed distinctive national cultures, societies and identities. Featuring case studies from 11 national contexts across 6 continents – including North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania – it reveals the common and contrasting approaches that have emerged within sport cinema in differing national contexts. This is fascinating and important reading for all students and researchers working in film, media, cultural studies or sport, and for broader enthusiasts of both sport and film.

The British Horseracing Film
The British Horseracing Film

Author: Stephen Glynn

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-01-05

Total Pages: 166

ISBN-13: 3030051803

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This book constitutes the first full volume dedicated to an academic analysis of horseracing in British cinema. Through comprehensive contextual histories of film production and reception, together with detailed textual analysis, this book explores the aesthetic and emotive power of the enduringly popular horseracing genre, its ideologically-inflected landscape and the ways in which horse owners and riders, bookmakers and punters have been represented on British screen. The films discussed span from the 1890s to the present day and include silent shorts, quota quickies and big-budget biopics. A work of social and film history, The British Horseracing Film demonstrates how the so-called “sport of kings” functions as an accessible institutional structure through which to explore cinematic discussions about the British nation—but also, and equally, national approaches to British cinema.

Every Boy's Dream
Every Boy's Dream

Author: Chris Green

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2009-08-03

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 1408132095

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Short listed for the Best Football Book in the 2010 British Sport Book Awards The way Britain develops its top football talent is a hot topic of debate. The failure of all four of the UK's national teams to reach the 2008 European Championships and the ever-increasing reliance of England's top clubs on foreign talent underlines an undisputable fact: that Britain now lags well behind the world's top countries in producing the best footballers, despite having the wealthiest league in the world and untold riches at the game's disposal. Every Boy's Dream: England's Football Future on the Line investigates why - despite unprecedented expenditure on a huge overhaul of youth development in the past decade - British football continues to fail to nurture top-class football talent. With some 10,000 boys in the system at any time - and less than one per cent of those boys likely to make it as professional footballers - there is a real need for a long, hard look at our domestic football development system. Who funds the system? How are the boys recruited? Who is responsible for their coaching and what qualifications do they have for the job? Who looks after their welfare, ensuring they are enjoying the sport and still keeping up with their schooling while under the clubs' stewardship? What happens when the boys don't make the cut and are released by the clubs? Every Boy's Dream does not pull any punches. It lays the blame at the doors of the authorities in charge of youth football. But, rather than just listing the faults of system - which are many, as the hard-hitting real-life examples demonstrate - it provides tales of inspiration and a blueprint for the future of the national game. It is the most thorough book ever written about football youth development, and cracks through the age-old veneer of perceived wisdom that has stifled debate on the subject.

Up Pohnpei
Up Pohnpei

Author: Paul Watson

Publisher: Profile Books

Published: 2012-02-02

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 1847658008

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After one too many late night discussions, football journalist Paul Watson and his mate Matthew Conrad decide to find the world's worst national team, become naturalised citizens of that country and play for them - achieving their joint boyhood dream of playing international football and winning a 'cap'. They are thrilled when Wikipedia leads them to Pohnpei, a tiny, remote island in the Pacific whose long-defunct football team is described as 'the weakest in the world'. They contact Pohnpei's Football Association and discover what it needs most urgently is leadership. So Paul and Matt travel thousands of miles, leaving behind jobs, families and girlfriends to train a rag-tag bunch of novice footballers who barely understand the rules of the game. Up Pohnpei tells the story of their quest to coach the team and eventually, organise an international fixture - Pohnpei's first since a 16-1 defeat many years ago. With no funding, a population whose obesity rate is 90 percent and toad-infested facilities in one of the world's wettest climates, their journey is beset by obstacles from the outset. Part travelogue, part quest, Up Pohnpei shows how the passion and determination of two young men can change the face of football - and the lives of total strangers - on the other side of the world.