Going to the Match: The Passion for Football

The Perfect Gift for Football Fans

By: Duncan Hamilton

Narrated by: David Mounfield

A celebration of football by award-winning sports writer Duncan Hamilton.

A massive audience in sitting rooms, parks and pubs watched England in the 2018 World Cup. Yet as Duncan Hamilton demonstrates with style, insight and wit in Going to the Match, watching on TV is no substitute for being there.

Hamilton embarks on a richly entertaining, exquisitely crafted journey through football. Glory game or grass roots, England v Slovenia or Guiseley v Hartlepool, he delves beneath the action to illuminate the stories which make the sport endlessly compelling.

Along the way he marvels at present-day titans Harry Kane, Mo Salah, Kevin De Bruyne and Paul Pogba, reflects on sepia-tinted magicians Stanley Matthews, Jimmy Greaves, Bobby Charlton and Pele, and assesses managerial giants from Brian Clough and Jose Mourinho to Arsene Wenger and Gareth Southgate.

The odyssey takes Hamilton from Fleetwood to Berlin, via Glasgow and a Manchester derby, making detours into art, cinema, literature and politics as he explores the game's ever-changing culture and character.

The result, like the L. S. Lowry painting that inspired the book, is a football masterpiece.

©2018 Duncan Hamilton (P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Masterpiece

Let’s get one thing straight. This is not a sports book. It is sports literature of the highest order. From the opening sentence, Hamilton paints a picture with the most evocative, atmospheric and nostalgic scenes I’ve ever come across, rising to the brilliance of the painting for which this fine book is titled. The narration by David Mounfield is equally brilliant. Damn, I want to go to the match!