'A masterful work...it could be the best thing to have happened to English football in years' TIME OUT

'[A] thought-provoking reappraisal of ten key games in England's football history ... this book should be required reading for all future England squads' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

Having invented the game, everything that has followed for England and its national football team has been something of an anticlimax. There was, of course, the golden summer of 1966, and the great period of English dominance on the world stage, which fell roughly between 1886 and 1900, when England won 35 of their 40 internationals ... But before long foreign teams, with their insistence on progressive 'tactics', began to pose a few questions. And much of what followed for England constituted a series of false dawns.

In THE ANATOMY OF ENGLAND Jonathan Wilson seeks to place the bright spots in context. Time and again, progressive coaches have been spurned by England - technique being all very well, but what really matters is pluck and 'organised muscularity', or, to quote Jimmy Hogan's chairman at Aston Villa in 1936: 'I've no time for these theories about football. Just get the ball in the bloody net.'

Wilson takes ten key England fixtures and explores how what actually happened on the pitch shaped the future of the English game. Bursting with insight and critical detail, yet imbued with a wry affection, this is a history of England like none before.

'[A] thought-provoking reappraisal of ten key games in England's football history ... this book should be required reading for all future England squads' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

About the Author
Jonathan Wilson is a columnist for the Guardian and the founder and editor of The Blizzard. Inverting the Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics was Football Book of the Year in 2009 and was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award. Seven of his other books have been shortlisted for football book of the year and he has also won the Premio Antonio Ghirelli in Italy. Angels with Dirty Faces did the double of football book and history book of the year at the Polish Sports Book Awards in 2018. He is a three-time recipient of the FSA Football Writer of the Year award and in 2023 was granted an honorary doctorate by the University of Sunderland. He writes for the Guardian and in 2011 founded The Blizzard, which he still edits. Follow him on Twitter: @jonawils

Reviews
A masterful work...it could be the best thing to have happened to English football in years * TIME OUT *
[A] thought-provoking reappraisal of ten key games in England's football history ... this book should be required reading for all future England squads * INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY *
Wilson belongs alongside David Goldblatt and the daddy of them all, Brian Glanville, in the triumvirate of great British football historians * FINANCIAL TIMES *
Absorbing in detail...By analysing 10 England matches which sum up the prevailing ethos in the English game, Wilson's forensic examination of events on the bench are lent a broader context and perspective * FOURFOURTWO *
Bursting with insight and critical detail, yet imbued with a wry affection, this is a history of England like none before. * LIVING NORTH *



Book Information
ISBN 9781409118206
Author Jonathan Wilson
Format Paperback
Page Count 432
Imprint Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
Publisher Orion Publishing Co
Weight(grams) 300g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 130mm * 38mm