Hitchin Town Fans Forum

Reading through my book collection very quickly due to the lock down. Most of them I had dipped into; nice to go through them from beginning to end.
1. The Wanderers F.C. 'Five Times F. A. Cup Winners' . By Rob Cavallini. Published by Dog N Duck Publications 2005
2. The Father of Modern Sport: The Life and Times of Charles W. Alcock. By Keith Booth. Published by Parrs Wood Press 2002
3. The Classic Guide to Football. By C. W. Alcock. Re-issued 2014 by Amberley Press. Originally published 1906
4. England's Oldest Football Clubs 1815-1889. By Martin Westby. Published by the author Summer 2019
5. Tales of the Town. By Neil Fredrick Jensen. Published by HTFC 150.
6. Luton Town: The Modern Era - A Complete Record. By Roger Wash. Published by Desert Island Books 1998
7. The Luton Town Story. By Timothy Collings. Published by LTFC 1985
8. The Official History of the F. A. Cup. By Geoffrey Green. Published by The FA. First published 1949. My copy is the revised 1960 edition, with a dust jacket showing a grinning Nottingham Forest captain collecting the F. A. Cup from Her Majesty. I keep it face down on my desk..........................

Some books worth reading in lockdown
1 – The Ball is Round by David Goldblatt – a history of the global game, an excellent book by a superb and intelligent writer.
2- Fear and Loathing in La Liga by Sid Lowe – Spanish football, focus on Real and Barca. Guardian journalist, excellent writer.
3- Soccernomics by Stefan Szymanski and Simon Kuper. Accessible read about the financial side of the game. Essential if you want to understand modern football.
4- Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson. A history of tactics and how they shaped the game. Possibly the best journalist of his time.
5- Building the Yellow Wall by Uli Hesse, the story of Borussia Dortmund.
6- Football Hackers by Christoph Biermann. Football and how data is being used. Revealing.
7- The Greatest Comeback by David Bolsover. The story of Bela Guttmann, the Jewish coach who came through the Holocaust to manage Benfica to two European Cups. Superb.
8- The Hand of God by Jimmy Burns. The bio of you know who.
9- Football in sun and shadow by Eduardo Galeano. Personal views on South American football.
10-Turf Wars by Steve Tongue. A history of London football. A Ronseal book…

Thank you for your interesting list, Neil. I'll be avoiding 'you know who', but no prizes for guessing which two books on your list I have ordered to fill the seemingly endless hours of the lock down (given that I'm hopeless at spotting tactics, and my late mother, a Rapid Wien fan, was born in the Jewish quarter of Vienna in 1929).......................

My Bestest, bestest football book, given to me in 1960 (brand new then).
'The Day A Team Died' by Frank Taylor
Photo of book (60 years old now) and my favourite Busby Babe Tommy Taylor.

Anthony, I remember that your Mum was a Rapid fan, was she born in Favoriten or Leopoldstadt?

I recently saw Tom Stoppard's play Leopoldstadt which is about a Jewish family from the early 1900s to the Holocaust.

Neil, my mother was Leopoldstadt born. Her father, a Vienna policeman, spent about a year in the Flossenburg concentration camp as a political prisoner; described on his camp record as 'German', as all Austrians were between 1938-45. The camp was liberated on 23rd April 1945, but I'm sure he once told me he was already walking home before the Americans arrived. Her two brothers were both policemen in Vienna after the war. I'll certainly check out the Tom Stoppard play when things get back to normal, if only in print.

Interesting Anthony - my Dad was in Frøslev Labour Camp and escaped just before 1,500 prisoners were sent to death camps.

Just on the football books front, the best three I've ever read have to be:

1. Floodlit Dreams: How to Save a Football Club - About a chap investing in Weymouth FC, it was a real insight into the boardroom stuff.
2. The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro - Wonderful story if a village team reaching Serie B in Italy.
3. Who Ate all the Pies - Mick Quinn's autobiography. I'm never usually a fan of an autobiography, but it was a great reason.

The Miracle Of Castel Di Sangro is my favourite football book of all time. Have read it three times and will probably read it again.

I hate to be a killjoy but before any of you rush to order some of these books online spare a thought for the staff travelling to work to process, pick & pack these books & the delivery driver, out every day to get them to your door rather than being able to stay at home safely. My other half works as a picture framer & is not overjoyed at having to work to frame, let's face it, none essential pictures to the public. There's no PPE available to them. If you do place an order a message of thanks for their help might be well appreciated.