There is more to supporting a football team than football - Rated 
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 !! - Rated 
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
|
