The Rise of Gerry Logan

Description

'The best book on football ever written'. No, that is not some copy-writer's hyperbole, it is the judgement of Franz Beckenbauer, winner of the World Cup as both player and manager. In Football Memories, Brian Glanville himself writes, 'The central character, Garry, was a Scottish inside-forward based on Danny Blanchflower. This, largely because the footballer had to be untypically intelligent and aware, as well as an accomplished performer. Danny, so fluent, so original, and in certain ways so flawed, seemed an ideal model. Yet he, or his surrogate, could not carry the whole book. I used various voices. His wife's. My own.' From J. B. Priestley's pre-publication endorsement - 'I enjoyed this highly original novel' - praise has been constant: 'This is a brilliant novel. Any footballer can see a little of himself in Gerry Logan, as I did when I first read it. The book tells what the pressures are like in the game, the temptations to which successful players are exposed and yet the human qualities tell us much about society and human nature in general.' Derek Dougan 'The best novel on soccer I have ever read.' Daily Herald 'Soars into first class fiction.' The Spectator 'An acid fable of our age, solid with expertise about football and its seamier secrets.' Daily Mail 'The whole world of big time soccer, with its glamour and bitter feuds, made very real.' Sunday Telegraph

Brian Glanville, novelist and journalist, is one of the best writers on football. He spent nearly thirty years as a football correspondent for the Sunday Times to which he is still a contributor. He has also written for The People as well as contributing obituaries of prominent players to The Guardian. Simon Barnes has said of him, 'Football has been better served than most sports with grown-up fiction, all of it from Brian Glanville, who has written some beautiful short stories and the classic Sixties period piece, The Rise of Gerry Logan.' And A. J. Ayer, 'Brian Glanville himself is a literary exception ... he is the best football journalist of recent times and the best writer of football fiction.' Faber Finds have reissued three of his novels - his two on football, The Rise of Gerry Logan and The Dying of the Light as well as The Olympian.