Hatters, Railwaymen and Knitters: Travels through England's Football Provinces

Description

Daniel Gray is about to turn thirty. Like any sane person, his response is to travel to Luton, Crewe and Hinckley. After a decade's exile in Scotland, he sets out to reacquaint himself with England via what he considers its greatest asset: football. Watching teams from the Championship (or Division Two as any right-minded person calls it) to the South West Peninsula Premier, and aimlessly walking around towns from Carlisle to Newquay, Gray paints a curious landscape forgotten by many. He discovers how the provinces made the England we know, from Teesside's role in the Empire to Luton's in our mongrel DNA. Moments in the histories of his teams come together to form football's narrative, starting with Sheffield pioneers and ending with fan ownership at Chester, and Gray shows how the modern game unifies an England in flux and dominates the places in which it is played. Hatters, Railwaymen and Knitters is a wry and affectionate ramble through the wonderful towns and teams that make the country and capture its very essence. It is part-football book, part-travelogue and part-love letter to the bits of England that often get forgotten, celebrated here in all their blessed eccentricity.

Author and historian Daniel Gray is the writer of Stramash and Homage to Caledonia. For a short period in the early 1990s he was the finest left-back in his village, once marking Gordon Strachan's youngest son (the one who didn't become a footballer) out of the game. A Middlesbrough supporter, Daniel began attending football matches in 1988 and has never recovered. He has worked in a psychiatric hospital, a library and in television and politics. He loves staring out of train windows and lives in Leith with his wife and daughter. Follow him on Twitter at @d_gray_writer.

Excellent * David Conn, Guardian * Gray writes like Lowry paints. Superb * BBC Lancashire * Like a footballing version of Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island * Four Four Two * A wryly-observed history lesson on lower league football and proper Englishness * Loaded * Among urban blight, his astute eye can pick out details that are funny, redeeming or both ... Book of the Week * Bradford Telegraph and Argus * It is perhaps obvious to compare Gray to Nick Hornby given the subject matter, yet the comparisons stretch beyond a passion for football ... Beautifully written, nostalgic and reflective, this will also appeal to fans of Simon Armitage, Stuart Maconie and Tim Moore * Books with Bunny blog * Superlative ... The book is beautifully written; pessimistic and damning, yet joyful and full of love for the game ... Wonderful * When Saturday Comes * A delight. It's the kind of book, filled with astute observations of small details, that might just convince the most confirmed football sceptic why football has such a place in our culture ... a book to savour and to make you think * New Statesman * Gray brilliantly interweaves social history, modern day public and political life and, of course, football itself...Highly recommended. * The Daily Telegraph * A wonderful read and like some of the very best football books out there, the actual football is merely a footnote...Really enjoyable and beautifully paced, this is one to read and keep as in ten years' time it could feel even more relevant than it does right now. * In Bed With Maradona *