| Description |
This book is 300 pages long, presented in A4 format and covers the history the Preston North End Football Club. That's important to remember: it is a history of the club, not a history of the football played by Preston North End. The football's in there alright but in the context of the men who ran the club, its financial state, developments to the ground, the lives of players, managers and directors and so on. The clue is in the sub-title "The Power, The Politics and The People".
Don't be put off by that: it could be very boring indeed but it is so well written that the story of the club forms a great frame for the football they played, so it would make a great complement to a book like "Loud and Proud", a chronological history of the North End that concentrates almost exclusively on events on the field.
I am not a dedicated North Ender myself so not all of the book was equally interesting, especially the modern era when the club has not enjoyed the best of times. The highlight for me was the account of William Suddell and his creation, the great Invincibles team in the 1880s - this made me realize how many other recent books have stolen from David Hunt's superb piece of research. You can tell Hunt is a "proper" historian. He has gone back to the original source material, quotes his sources, but don't think that makes this an "academic" book. It is highly readable and superbly illustrated as well.
David Hunt must have gone through mountains of club documents but he is clever enough to "wear his learning lightly" so he picks illustrations for his arguments without boring the reader by setting out to prove how much he has read. Financial information on the state of the club is a good example. You can guess he has looked through every set of accounts but he just picks very selectively from this to illustrate why the club had to sell at some points. It also throws light on the old pro's argument of "the gates were in the thousands, what happened to all the money?" For example, he describes how even top players like Alex James were only earning just over £8 per week in the mid 1920s but the club was still getting into financial difficulty - even a run to the cup final only brought in about £3,000, roughly the wages bill for three months.
30 x 22 cms, softback, 305 pages.
2000
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