All Played Out by Pete Davies

Book review: “All Played Out” is the tale of Italia ’90, with a focus on England’s time there. It is interesting reading it now as in many ways despite not being that long ago it seems a different era. This was a time when the Premier League hadn’t begun, when Lineker had scored only thirty-odd goals for England, and when it was still just 2-points for a win. Also “these were the horror days of a nation all played out, a nation of riot and yobbery, a nation whose football was oafish and whose fans were louts.” Hooligans are far less an issue these days of course.

Along the way as the author follows England there is a lot of talk of the “fans” and the thuggish behaviour of a minority, always written about in the English press in an over-exaggerated manner, and the thuggish behaviour of the Italians too, plus their baton-wielding police. There is also a lot of talk about the English press, “the worst disciplined press in Western Europe”, because the author of the book was a fully signed-up member of the press pack with all the privileged access that brings, this access allowing him to conduct several interviews in the book with members of England’s playing squad, as well as the manager.

Some of these interviews are interesting retrospectively now, like how Lineker would “like to go into television”, and how Waddle thought Gazza with his personality could be a danger to himself when he was older. Also retrospectively it looks odd why Bobby Robson got so many negative headlines as England manager with his impressive record of a world cup quarter-final followed by a semi-final, but when the author maligns the press behaviour through much of the book you can probably begin to see why that happened.

The book also delves into football more technically than other offerings, with lots in particular on systems with 4-4-2 being said to be “all played out”. The author also covers all the wider football stuff going on at the World Cup in “Planet Football” with England players performing commercial activities such as casually modelling clothes or delivering Malaysian sound-bites, and some remarks on the official cheese of Italia ’90 with a multitude of tall, beautiful cheesewomen being present at various press events, never failing to impress the author, although the cheese less so as he never talks about tasting it.

The book covers more than just football though. For example it starts before the World Cup with a journey to Sardinia and Cagliari, England’s World Cup base for their group games, and delves into the history and culture of the place. Some of this works better than other bits, for example all the administration bits about waiting for fax machines to work etc. as he tries to obtain press tickets and the like could have been left out.

There is also a good writing style present too. On the unpredictable Gazza getting fouled: “Will he clout the guy? Or will he get up and shake his hand, pat his face and ruffle his hair, then embrace the referee?” And on the stadiums: “where the ordinary folk go to watch the men who’ve got gold in their shoes.”

Overall then an enjoyable read, and if you want to play a game whilst reading then see if you predict when the author is just about to use his favourite phrases “all played out” and “Planet Football”.

Published: 29 Oct 1990

Available on AMAZON

Green Shoes Mean I Love You by Amie Ryan

"Green Shoes Mean I Love You" is a collection of memoirs, essays, short fiction and poetry, as stated on the cover. Therefore it is ideal if you like your reading in bite-size chunks.

The opening memoirs are strong. The opening lines of each separate piece draw you in to want to read the rest straight away, e.g. "In 1979 my father waged war on the Mormons." The memoirs include amusing anecdotes and some moving pieces too.

Then there are the thinking pieces, or essays, covering things such as aspects of Seattle, the author being a Seattleite, and things people of the Generation X (which the author is) would have went through. This includes "The Seattle NO", the author's blog piece that can be found on the web, and which is mentioned in the blurb for this book. The essays on Seattle would be best appreciated by those familiar with America.

The short fiction pieces are next with each having the potential to be expanded into more full stories, so you might feel short-changed by them as you want more, and the collection finishes with some non-rhyming poetry, a couple of poems cleverly being related to each other.

The poem that finishes the book is called "Green Shoes Mean I Love You," and also lends it's name to the book, bringing the big reveal as to why exactly green shoes mean I love you right at the end, just as if the book were a novel.

So all in all a variety of things within the covers, some ok, some good and some excellent.

(I got this book through a Goodreads First Read competition. This review is my honest opinion of the book.)

Publication Date: 31 May 2014 

Amazon UK link: Green Shoes Mean I Love You

David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell's "David and Goliath" is about perceived advantages and disadvantages, and how they may not be all that they seem. The points are brought to life using stories of real-life people.

For example the introduction discusses Goliath the giant and how he was felled by the tiny shepherd boy David. We assume Goliath, because he is big and dressed as a warrior, will win the battle but really the weapons used, plus other things, put him at a disadvantage, as evident from the outcome of the bout.

Then we get into the book proper with a chapter looking at a youth basketball coach doing things unconventionally to great effect despite the fact the team has not the best players.

Other chapters of the book look at:

• whether smaller class sizes are better
• whether being a small fish in a big pond, e.g. a great institution like a top university, is better than being a big fish in a smaller pond
• whether dyslexia is a disadvantage or a desirable difficulty
• how losing a parent at a young age, a traumatic experience, can lead to a different, possibly advantageous outlook in life later
• how when you have nothing to lose you can have unexpected power
• and so on.

All the while this is told through people's real stories, some of which are really touching like the way leukemia used to mean certain death for the kids who had it, but thanks to pioneers is now a treatable cancer.

Overall then this is a readable book that gets you thinking about things differently, although the focus is on the positive attributes rather than the negative, e.g. dyslexia and how one third of entrepreneurs are dyslexic with only a brief mention how kids with dyslexia are more likely to end up in the juvenile system. Also at the end the same idea seems to be presented multiple times. But a good read nonetheless.

Amazon UK link: David and Goliath

Publication date: 8 May 2014

Always Managing: My Autobiography by Harry Redknapp

I read the John Crace biography of Harry Redknapp "Harry's Games: Inside the Mind of Harry Redknapp" so thought I'd read this, the autobiography too. Needless to say this is better as it comes straight from the horse's mouth and isn't just someone else's interpretation of the man.

The opening chapter is great. It focuses on Harry's very public 2012 tax evasion trial and shows real vulnerability. A moving chapter indeed.

Other bits of the book allow Redknapp to address other things that have been said about him in the past, e.g. as in the aforementioned John Crace book, like accusations he took bungs, how he likes to hire "yes men" as assistant managers, how he financially crippled Portsmouth and how he is "tactically naive." Harry says, "I know I wouldn't have lasted as long as this in the game if I didn't know how to set up and organise a team, and improve players." You have to agree with Harry.

The book obviously takes you through his career too, right from youth teams Burdett Boys, East London Boys, training with Spurs twice a week around 1960-61, signing for West Ham, "a place where I felt I would get a chance," then Bournemouth, Seattle Sounders, Phoenix Fire before management first with Bobby Moore at Oxford City, then assistant and manager at Bournemouth winning the Associate Members Cup and promotion, "the highest up the league that Bournemouth had ever been," then West Ham winning the Intertoto Cup, Portsmouth winning the Championship, then Southampton and the abuse, back to Portsmouth and winning the FA Cup before Spurs and the Champion's League and his first season at QPR.

There are plenty of anecdotes along the way too on the characters Harry has met. There is Bobby Moore who Harry thinks should have been treated better. "Seeing him struggle confirmed to me that nobody in this game really gives a monkey's about you once you'be served your purpose." And then there are the stories about the players he's managed like Paolo di Canio for example, as well as various relationships with chairmen and other managers.

So overall an enjoyable read about one of the game's most colourful and likeable characters.

Amazon UK link: Always Managing: My Autobiography by Harry Redknapp

Publication date: 22 May 2014

The Nolympics by Nicholas Lezard

Essentially this book is a big essay on the Olympics and Sport in general. There is some reference to the events of the London games, and the book is based around the days of the London Olympics, but the book is more comment than commentary, for example day 12 of the book contains no actual coverage of the games.

The introduction to the book starts with a synopsis of "Asterix at the Olympic Games", so I guess that could be put on your prerequisite reading list. After that the rest of the book is split into days from day 0 to day 16, with maybe 2,000 words a day.

So from day 0 the author has a moan about how the Olympic cash spent on training the GB athletes could have been more usefully spent on keeping libraries open, or on hospitals. This is followed up by a moan about the medals with the "disgusting logo", comparing them to the "austere beauty" of the 2008 China ones (not mentioning the fact that this was a logo designed by a child). I thought it was going to be one of those moany books, and that the Asterix opening was going to be the highlight. Luckily I was quickly put right.

The funny moments soon came. Like how the author set himself up as Mr. anti-Olympics but when Mitt Romney states that "Britain wasn't ready to host the Olympics" he still takes exception. And how the opening ceremony had the opening line of the Pistols "God save the Queen" in a montage, and the crowd and viewers at home immediately thought of the second line of the song even though it was unsung.

And if you think that this book uses the games "as an excuse for a jumped up commentator to get on his hind legs and see only what he wants to see" then you'd be wrong because the author says so.

Anyways, even though the author in failing to actually watch the Mo Farah race says that "I feel I've let my publisher down, I've let my agent down, I've let my friends and family and girlfriend down, I've let the cat down, but most of all I've let myself down," in a parody to an losing athlete's speech he really hasn't because I enjoyed the book. Sports books don't need to contain the details of the events taking place on the field, Fever Pitch is an example of that. 

I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed HERE.

Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Green

This book is about an imaginary friend called Budo. You might think therefore that this is a book for children but you'd be wrong; it is definitely aimed at adults.

The author expertly builds a world where imaginary friends are not imaginary at all. In fact they are real but can be seen only by those that imagined them, and other imaginary friends who they can interact with. However the life-span of an imaginary friend is not long because once they are forgotten about by their creator they simply cease to exist, which is sad.

Therefore Budo, at 5-years-old, is old. And the reason for that is because his human, 8-year-old Max, has a disability of some sort, possibly Asperger Syndrome (although never diagnosed). That's pretty sad too.

There are other tear-jerking moments in the book as well - like an imaginary friend forming for a girl who lies in hospital without her parents after a car crash, her only friend left in the world, or another imaginary friend ceasing to exist. And the ending is probably the most tear-jerking moment of all.

So maybe not for kids as they may cry (although adults will too).

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed here.)

Tiger, Tiger: A Memoir by Margaux Fragoso

"Tiger, tiger" is a book about a relationship between a girl and a middle-aged man. For that reason I was worried before I started reading it that I would not be able to complete the book. However from the beginning I was hooked. The writing was superb. The author was able to conjure up the childish behaviour of a child effortlessly. And as she got older so did the way she behaved.

But then the relationship between Margaux with the aged Peter got frequently sexual (she was around 13 at this time) and the graphic content of this middle section did lead to a lull in the book for me. But I read through this wanting to get to the bit where Peter was going to commit suicide, as was cleverly mentioned right at the beginning of the book, but needing to know what triggered it. Although in the end there was no trigger but just a gradual build-up of depression and accusations that made him do it. And strangely the end isn't that sad until the author looks back nostalgically to the good moments they had together in the last couple of pages of the book before the afterword.

The "Tiger, tiger" title was clever. It had two meanings. Meaning 1 was a reference to a game that Margaux and Peter played when she was young and meaning 2 could reference the animal - the predator after its prey, like Peter in his grooming of the young child Margaux.

A challenging read but if you can get past the subject matter and the not-too-nice middle-section it can be rewarding such is the excellent writing style.

(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is available to buy here.)