Chapter and verse on the beautiful game
After literature and sex, football is one of the great pleasures’
Pier Paolo Pasolini
I found this quote about five years ago when I was doing research for a university course I was trying to organise on ‘Football and Literature’. In fact, I liked it so much I even got a t-shirt with the quote on it. I still have the t-shirt, though the course never got off the ground. And I’m sure that not everyone – if anyone – would agree with the order that Pier Paolo Pasolini prioritised his three great passions!
It has been something that’s puzzled me for a long time – why has football always been so poorly represented in literature? Perhaps this was why only three people signed up for my course! (If you are one of those three people reading this blog now, thank you for your commitment – I hope you got your money back!)
Sport enjoys much more prominence in American literature, from novels specifically about a particular sport such as Shoeless Joe by WP Kinsella (which became the film, Field of Dreams) through to being an important part of what would be considered high-brow literary tomes such as Don De Lillo’s Underworld or the first two books in Richard’s Ford’s ‘Frank Bascombe Trilogy’ – The Sportswriter and Independence Day.
Football is an integral part of many people’s lives. It can be a focal point for them and their family and friends, it can be a source of identity and pride within communities; it can cause divisions, provoke anger, make or break relationships. In short, it should provide plenty of inspiration for writers. Yet, there remains a paucity of good football fiction. It could just be a long-standing literary snobbery about the ‘working man’s’ sport, but there is definitely a rich seam waiting to be mined.
It’s not as though Scottish writers haven’t previously ventured on to this football field. Football is a regular ‘character’ in many of Irvine Welsh’s books, while Robin Jenkins, who I believe is the greatest novelist Scotland has ever produced, wrote two novels with football playing a central role – ‘A Would-Be Saint’ (1978) and The Thistle and the Grail (1954).
The Thistle and the Grail is the best novel about football that I’ve ever read. It tells the story of Drumsagart Thistle and their obsessive bid to win the Scottish Junior Cup. It is a captivating book, very funny in parts, and an excellent portrayal of small-town life in Scotland.
Step forward Alan Bissett, a fine Scottish writer who has just published Pack Men (Hachette Scotland). It’s the fictional story of four Rangers-supporting friends who travel to Manchester for the 2009 UEFA Cup final. I’m looking forward to reading it and I wish the book every success, not least because I hope it might encourage other writers to tackle the subject of football… myself included!
A few other football book recommendations (fact and fiction):
Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby
Dynamo by Tariq Goddard
The Football Factory by John King
The Beautiful Team by Garry Jenkins
The Miracle of Castel di Sangro by Joe McGinniss
The Damned United by David Peace
And I can’t write about football and literature without mentioning Willy the Wizard by the genius who is Anthony Browne. Get this book. NOW! Even if you don’t have children. It tells the story of Willy the chimp who finds a pair of old football boots which give him incredible skills on the pitch. And if that’s not enough, Willy also wears the green and white Hoops! What more do you want from a book?
author@paulcuddihy.com or follow me on Twitter @PaulTheHunted
