Description
Brimming with wisdom and humour, David Kynaston's diaries written over one football season offer up his most personal take on social history to date
About the Author
David Kynaston was born in Aldershot in 1951 overlooking the football ground. A professional historian since 1973, he has written extensively on post-war Britain; on the City of London; on cricket; and on the private school question. Shots in the Dark is his first football book.
Reviews
[A] delightful book ... This is a book about football but, like all the best books, it is about a thousand other things as well ... This thrilling, intimate, sometimes poignant, often wonderfully funny book shows the workings in real time of a deeply civilised, humane and tolerant mind in an age when those virtues are in short supply. Here is a man with whom you would want to go to a match, and even share a beer afterwards. David Kynaston is one of the good guys, and this is one of the very good books -- Roger Alton * Daily Mail *
Kynaston strikes a distinctive voice that is in turns warm and sharp and heavy-hearted and dismayed ... The pages are filled with entries like this: easily absorbed and entertaining but deceptively thought-provoking ... This fascinating book of opinion and reflection offers a wistful snapshot of the rewards of staying the course with the team -- Keith Duggan * Irish Times *
A charming diary ... He's the sort of fan I want to sit next to: partisan yet civil, eyes on the match but aware there are bigger things to worry about -- Murad Ahmed * Financial Times *
David Kynaston is one of the great chroniclers of our modern story * Sunday Times *
A master socioeconomic craftsman * Guardian *
A historian of peerless sensitivity and curiosity about the lives of individuals * Financial Times *
A surprising book about life as a fan of a non-league club - surprising in that it finds room for HG Wells' argument with Henry James and the calamitous state of liberal democracy, as well as the 2016/17 National League playoffs. I loved every page, and ended up admiring David Kynaston, our greatest social historian, even more than I already did -- Nick Hornby
Book Information
ISBN 9781526623034
Author David Kynaston
Format Paperback
Page Count 272
Imprint Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Weight(grams) 228g