Golden Daze

By: Nick Corble

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

One May afternoon in 1984, a football team from unfashionable Watford stepped out onto the manicured turf of the old Wembley stadium wearing incredibly tight shorts and the occasional ridiculous haircut. It was to be their first, and to date only, appearance in an FA Cup Final. As they took to the field they seemed to symbolise changing times, times in which anything could happen. Was the country going to the dogs, or the Isle of Dogs? Just as Scargill was taking on Thatcher, Watford, the new kids on the block, were taking on the football establishment. But this isn’t a book about politics. It isn’t even about football, or one particular football club. It’s a light-hearted look at a time we all live through, seen via the eyes of a young man on the brink of adulthood and through the twin lenses of his passion for, and need to identify with, his club, and the tumultuous changes taking place in the pre-internet, some would say, more interesting period of the mid-1980s. Armed only with idealism and an average degree, Colin Westlake emerges from the safe confines of university into an unfamiliar world of yuppies, Captain Sensible and mass unemployment. He’s on his own in a world inhabited by work, women and wiles that seem determined to poke fun at him, forcing him to take sanctuary in the familiar rhythm of the football season. What he doesn’t know, cannot know, is that this is the sort of season that only comes along once in a generation, and it’s ramifications will end up defining both him and his future. A coming of age tale, Golden Daze will strike a chord with anyone who’s ever floundered in a confusing world, or followed the sort of football team for whom glory is usually something that only ever happens to someone else. Sex, politics, football – what could possibly go wrong? NB: Readers who enjoy this book may also enjoy the short story 'Field of Gold' by the same author, which picks up with the main protagonist from the story 30 years on ...