The No1 Ethical retailer for Books, CD’s, DVD’s & Games
30 Day Refund Guarantee

The Rivals Game: Inside the British Football Derby

The Rivals Game: Inside the British Football Derby

by Douglas Beattie (Author)

  • Used

    Paperback 2011

    $3.24
Synopsis

Why do football fans decide to support one club over another in cities where intense, deep-seated rivalries exist? What makes them choose: family ties, geography, politics, religion, race? Douglas Beattie spent two years in search of what really lies at the heart of Britain's greatest derbies. He takes the reader to all the matches with a history of passion and divisiveness which transcends football - making them vitally important to the cities in which they are played. Liverpool. Glasgow. North London. These local derbies have a history of violence, feuding, social unrest and bigotry. But what is the truth about their origins, and how does the enmity manifest itself in modern times? With divisions going back as far as the English Civil War, Douglas discovers why the citizens of Sheffield call each other 'Pigs'; who was Wallace Mercer, the man who divided Edinburgh, and who really eats prawn sandwiches in Manchester.

$3.24

Save:$9.26 (74%)

Quantity

4 in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 256
 Edition: 2nd edition
 Publisher: Pitch Publishing Ltd
Published: 01 Apr 2011
ISBN 10: 1908051035
ISBN 13: 9781908051035

Media Reviews
There is a big piece of brain behind the brawn in this book my friends... It is a cracking yarn... If you want to read a little bit more about football culture and a little bit about the way it really ticks and I think what probably really drives people to derby madness and derby day mayhem, get hold of Douglas Beattie's book - Steve Bunce, BBC London Sports Show. --- Beattie gets a flavour for each rivalry, often accurately pinpointing the mentality of the two groups of fans. - Jon Crampin, FourFourTwo. --- I loved this book... Football fans will love it, it gets right to the heart of why people choose their clubs and what these cities are like to live in ... I doubt a finer football book has been written about the game in Britain... Cover to cover a cracking read. - www.booksunlimited.ie. --- Beattie combines excellent reportage with a great deal of deftly rendered (and appropriately acknowledged) history to reveal that some of the most prolonged rifts have their roots in the actions of historical individuals. - Andrew Baker, The Telegraph. --- 'The Rivals Game' offers a great deal for both partisan and impartial lovers of the not-always-beautiful game. - Simon Redfern, The Independent. --- What Beattie has produced is an intelligent and well written insight into the eight biggest derbies in British football - it does afford Beattie the opportunity to pack the book with information to entertain and interest the reader - there is also plenty of humour. - When Saturday Comes. --- It's a real fans' book, that's exactly what it is. Reading about the reasons why you support one team or another, or you are passionate about one team or another, it brought it all home to me and it made sense. - Dotun Adebayo, Radio 5Live.
Author Bio
Douglas Beattie is a BBC journalist and producer. He regularly works for Radio 4 and has previously been with Five Live, the UK Press Association and Scottish Television. He has written about football for national newspapers, magazines and websites, despite being scarred by his earliest memory - of Scotland's disastrous 1978 World Cup campaign.