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Going to the Match: The Passion for Football

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What to expect

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.

(P)2018 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Critics Review

Hamilton is steeped in the history and traditions of football and communicates his knowledge lightly and with wit and intelligence. Above all, though, this is a fan's-eye view that brilliantly expresses the passion that millions like him, in pursuit of happiness and belonging, feel for the beautiful game. Simply magnificent.
Mail on Sunday
Author Duncan Hamilton
Narrator David Mounfield
Duration 11 hours and 33 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781529319637
Format Audiobook
Publisher Hodder & Stoughton
Genre Association football (Soccer), History of sport, Memoirs, Sporting venues, Sports teams and clubs
Availability AU, GB, IE, US

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