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Promised Land: A Northern Love Story
Clavane sees the club’s 50-year journey, from Revie’s arrival in 1959 to League One obscurity in 2009, as a powerful lens through which to examine the rise and fall of an ambitious, upwardly-mobile society.
From the Hardcover edition.
From the Hardcover edition.
290 pages, Paperback
First published July 7, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 24, 2013
I expect I’m in a minority of football fans who are fairly ambivalent about Leeds United. It was a little before my time, but I’ve heard plenty stories over the years about Don Revie and his ‘Dirty Leeds’. But then they had a very strong core of Scottish players that I looked up to in my childhood (McQueen, Jordan, Arthur Graham) or heard others raving about their predecessors (Bremner, Lorimer, Eddie Gray). At one point, Revie had seventeen Scots on the books. Even later Leeds sides had the odd sprinkling of Scottish swagger: think Gordon Strachan, Gary McAllister or recently Robert Snodgrass.
So I have never hated Leeds United. Elland Road Stadium is neither the promised land or hell on earth to me, even if both Leeds players and fans have often been associated with the uglier side of the game. It may be harder for partisan English football supporters to read this book with such an open mind, but it could allow you to see the club in a slightly different light.
Whether or not there’s any truth in this dirty Leeds stuff, as with many things related to football, there’s a pantomime villain element to it. I’ve seen enough clips to know that those Leeds United teams of the 60’s and early 70’s did not enjoy their successes through brute force or intimidation alone. One thing that comes across in this book is that ‘Dirty Leeds’ did not always win ugly. In part because they didn’t actually win that much. At least not as many trophies as they could have. They were not nearly as dominant as say Liverpool in the 80’s or Manchester United over the last decade or two. All too often Leeds blew it at the final hurdle.
In fact, Promised Land starts with a description of their biggest nearly moment when they could have won the European Cup in 1975 were it not for an offside flag. A few years earlier, Leeds were said to have been denied a championship due to an offside goal West Brom’s Jeff Astle scored against them. This is the writer as a fan coming to the fore because supporters will always point to a critical moment that stopped their dream from becoming a reality. For the rest of us, Leeds didn’t win the title that season or the European Cup a few years later. End of story.
Anthony Clavane is a Leeds United fan. The book is none the worse for its lack of neutrality. On the contrary, as with many of the best football books, it is all the better for being written by someone with a genuine passion for the subject matter. And he doesn’t shy away from talking about the club’s darker side at times.
In addition to the football, Promised Land is a personal and family memoir of the Jewish community he grew up in. He has recently published another book about the Jewish presence in English football called Does Your Rabbi Know You’re Here? He touches on some of that in this work, which also has some very interesting social history of Leeds in the twentieth century and explains how both the city and the club came from nowhere to become a powerhouse in the land.
So I have never hated Leeds United. Elland Road Stadium is neither the promised land or hell on earth to me, even if both Leeds players and fans have often been associated with the uglier side of the game. It may be harder for partisan English football supporters to read this book with such an open mind, but it could allow you to see the club in a slightly different light.
Whether or not there’s any truth in this dirty Leeds stuff, as with many things related to football, there’s a pantomime villain element to it. I’ve seen enough clips to know that those Leeds United teams of the 60’s and early 70’s did not enjoy their successes through brute force or intimidation alone. One thing that comes across in this book is that ‘Dirty Leeds’ did not always win ugly. In part because they didn’t actually win that much. At least not as many trophies as they could have. They were not nearly as dominant as say Liverpool in the 80’s or Manchester United over the last decade or two. All too often Leeds blew it at the final hurdle.
In fact, Promised Land starts with a description of their biggest nearly moment when they could have won the European Cup in 1975 were it not for an offside flag. A few years earlier, Leeds were said to have been denied a championship due to an offside goal West Brom’s Jeff Astle scored against them. This is the writer as a fan coming to the fore because supporters will always point to a critical moment that stopped their dream from becoming a reality. For the rest of us, Leeds didn’t win the title that season or the European Cup a few years later. End of story.
Anthony Clavane is a Leeds United fan. The book is none the worse for its lack of neutrality. On the contrary, as with many of the best football books, it is all the better for being written by someone with a genuine passion for the subject matter. And he doesn’t shy away from talking about the club’s darker side at times.
In addition to the football, Promised Land is a personal and family memoir of the Jewish community he grew up in. He has recently published another book about the Jewish presence in English football called Does Your Rabbi Know You’re Here? He touches on some of that in this work, which also has some very interesting social history of Leeds in the twentieth century and explains how both the city and the club came from nowhere to become a powerhouse in the land.
April 25, 2021
A book about Leeds and Leeds United Football club. The author goes back and forth from the early 1900 until 2011. Much is reflected on his Jewish family arrival and integration into Leeds and Leeds United Football Club.
As the author states, "this book is,in part, a love letter to that side, to a lost disappearing world, to the epoch of my childhood, to the way I grew up thinking and dreaming of football. I'll never forgot the way super Leeds tore into Bayern Munich in 1975. Paris is scorched into my mind. But what's the use of powerlessly mourning the mysterious promise such a moment held? It's time to let go of the legacy. To stop being a seventies revival act. To shed the past."
Winding forward to 2021. Marcelo Biensas much improved Leeds United team is a pure joy to watch. Once this epidemic is over thanks to the Covid vaccinations we can all enjoy the Leeds team from the terraces in Elland road again.
As the author states, "this book is,in part, a love letter to that side, to a lost disappearing world, to the epoch of my childhood, to the way I grew up thinking and dreaming of football. I'll never forgot the way super Leeds tore into Bayern Munich in 1975. Paris is scorched into my mind. But what's the use of powerlessly mourning the mysterious promise such a moment held? It's time to let go of the legacy. To stop being a seventies revival act. To shed the past."
Winding forward to 2021. Marcelo Biensas much improved Leeds United team is a pure joy to watch. Once this epidemic is over thanks to the Covid vaccinations we can all enjoy the Leeds team from the terraces in Elland road again.
January 25, 2022
Loved how the author tied the story of a football club into a discussion on the city of Leeds’ ability to fall back into the worst parts and grow into the best parts of itself in a social, cultural, sporting and moral sense.
All this coming from the perspective of someone who felt like they both belonged and were excluded from the society he was born into and then left.
Really enjoyed this as both a Leeds United supporter and someone who’s favorite part of the game is often off the pitch. MOT. ALAW.
All this coming from the perspective of someone who felt like they both belonged and were excluded from the society he was born into and then left.
Really enjoyed this as both a Leeds United supporter and someone who’s favorite part of the game is often off the pitch. MOT. ALAW.
June 9, 2020
A fabulous book. Well written, intertwining social history of Leeds with the development of Leeds United. Insights into the psychology and make up of the Revie era in particular and the author represents the somewhat tainted yet glorious crusade it is to support Leeds United. Growing up in Leeds during the 1980s I found the context for the book poignant and a provocative interpretation of this Northern city. An excellent read.
March 21, 2020
A very interesting book about my favourite football club, Leeds United, and its connection to the city of Leeds and to the author.
I gained a lot of new information about Leeds United, which was interesting, but the book had a bit of a gloomy air about it.
Still, it is a very interesting read and I recommend it to every Leeds United fan.
I gained a lot of new information about Leeds United, which was interesting, but the book had a bit of a gloomy air about it.
Still, it is a very interesting read and I recommend it to every Leeds United fan.
August 14, 2022
It's mainly a history of Leeds United, but then also contains history of the city, discussion on racism/anti-Semitism, and some autobiographical content. For the most part, it is told in chronological order, and given there is a massive span of years, some sections are quite brief.
March 1, 2025
A far better than average football memoir and story. Sorry, Nick Hornby..
May 4, 2020
A memoir about a football fan in Leeds, growing up at a time when his team were the best in the land. Better than Fever Pitch.
June 2, 2016
Anthony Clavane's love for Leeds, his tough love, is always there. Sure, it's not just about football, or football in context: the book is about tribes from the point of view of an active member, with sharply focused looks at particular tribal attitudes. It is properly biased in favour of `community cohesion' (a pair of words widely used but seldom fully understood in the world of education) and against those who seek to wreck it, like the oddly-named Service Crew, the notorious gang of Leeds hooligans which brawled its racist and xenophobic way across the country a quarter of a century ago. Clavane would endorse the words of Nelson Mandela, who said, "Sport has the power to change the world, the power to inspire, the power to unite people in a way that little else can....it breaks down racial barriers...it laughs in the face of all discrimination."
The book is awash with background information and interesting well-I-never-knew-that details, in addition to predictable coverage of the notable LUFC bosses of the past few decades. There is plenty on Don Revie, for example, to supplement what can be found in David Peace's The Damned United, or rather to put a few things straight. Clavane goes over well-known facts, adds a few more and exposes some false legends. There is also a fair amount on the half-forgotten Albert Johanneson, one of the first great black players in English football, who really needs a good biography written about him, and his fellow South African Lucas Radebe, he of the Kaizer Chiefs, the boy from Soweto who became one of the Premier League's finest defenders and whose memory is still revered in Leeds.
One of the really significant aspects of Promised Land is the series of connections made with the literature which has come out of the city and its environs - Billy Liar for example, or Tony Harrison's poem V. There are also references to sociological works like the well-worn Uses of Literacy and Nick Davies's worryingly lurid The Dark Heart, which describes how the street children, beggars, muggers and joy riders of Leeds all come creeping out at night, and to books on architecture. I get the feeling that Clavane could write an excellent illustrated guide to local architecture. So the book is not just for a run-of-the-mill fan who might put down the Daily Mirror and pick up a book (picture it) on the coach to a match.
It's fluent and engaging, with a heart worn on the sleeve, which puts it on a different level to some other books about sport, free of jargon and automaton journalism and more than accessible to people who have a flimsy knowledge of soccer. People who have never been to Leeds in their lives would enjoy it as well!
The book is awash with background information and interesting well-I-never-knew-that details, in addition to predictable coverage of the notable LUFC bosses of the past few decades. There is plenty on Don Revie, for example, to supplement what can be found in David Peace's The Damned United, or rather to put a few things straight. Clavane goes over well-known facts, adds a few more and exposes some false legends. There is also a fair amount on the half-forgotten Albert Johanneson, one of the first great black players in English football, who really needs a good biography written about him, and his fellow South African Lucas Radebe, he of the Kaizer Chiefs, the boy from Soweto who became one of the Premier League's finest defenders and whose memory is still revered in Leeds.
One of the really significant aspects of Promised Land is the series of connections made with the literature which has come out of the city and its environs - Billy Liar for example, or Tony Harrison's poem V. There are also references to sociological works like the well-worn Uses of Literacy and Nick Davies's worryingly lurid The Dark Heart, which describes how the street children, beggars, muggers and joy riders of Leeds all come creeping out at night, and to books on architecture. I get the feeling that Clavane could write an excellent illustrated guide to local architecture. So the book is not just for a run-of-the-mill fan who might put down the Daily Mirror and pick up a book (picture it) on the coach to a match.
It's fluent and engaging, with a heart worn on the sleeve, which puts it on a different level to some other books about sport, free of jargon and automaton journalism and more than accessible to people who have a flimsy knowledge of soccer. People who have never been to Leeds in their lives would enjoy it as well!
June 14, 2012
I found this book really interesting as it has a lot of personal resonance to me. As both a football and a cultural book it’s most definitely worth a four star rating.
Clavane, the author, is a Leeds lad and a Leeds United fan and his memoir about the city of Leeds and the club weave around many common threads. Although the fourth biggest city in the UK is quite obviously presented as developed and multicultural, within these pages a racist insularity permeates with divisions and loyalties being presented and questioned sporadically. Clavane also uses the device of presenting his own Jewish identity to help explain some of the sociological history, growth and development of the city and, almost in diary and memoir form, he also tracks Leeds United’s history, growth and development along with all the snakes and ladders that most football clubs face from era to era.
‘Leeds’ as a concept and actual place proves different to many and different to most in fact with its own unique ‘City’ personality being characterised in the book. I would say that this very ‘personal appeal’ of this book holds both plus and minus points. If, like me, you are familiar with Leeds and the economic and social context of the West Riding, interested in the culture of football as well as the pure goals and stats, empathise with a Jewish heritage and appreciate the nostalgia of local culture and cultural change THEN this book will be valuable to you. Within it holds a weaving narration between all these elements and the associated human characters. Also featured heavily is a conscious-unconscious dream-like respect of the Don Revie years and the despair of seasons and challenges left unfulfilled for a long time after.
Not being empathetic to any of the above factors would make this book a more tedious read for those relatively uninterested in any of the above as Clavane’s tapestry is rich, well-researched and detailed as well as full of personal anecdotes and commentaries. Let’s face it …. many of us are speculative and accumulative readers and as far as books are concerned we will try often, anything and potentially many. This book definitely needs a more discerning reader to do its quiet genius justice. To them it will shine a new light on an old and historical city, club and context. To me, it inspired a new love for people and places I have always be fond of.
Recommended to those above - see above. Digest, wonder and enjoy!
Clavane, the author, is a Leeds lad and a Leeds United fan and his memoir about the city of Leeds and the club weave around many common threads. Although the fourth biggest city in the UK is quite obviously presented as developed and multicultural, within these pages a racist insularity permeates with divisions and loyalties being presented and questioned sporadically. Clavane also uses the device of presenting his own Jewish identity to help explain some of the sociological history, growth and development of the city and, almost in diary and memoir form, he also tracks Leeds United’s history, growth and development along with all the snakes and ladders that most football clubs face from era to era.
‘Leeds’ as a concept and actual place proves different to many and different to most in fact with its own unique ‘City’ personality being characterised in the book. I would say that this very ‘personal appeal’ of this book holds both plus and minus points. If, like me, you are familiar with Leeds and the economic and social context of the West Riding, interested in the culture of football as well as the pure goals and stats, empathise with a Jewish heritage and appreciate the nostalgia of local culture and cultural change THEN this book will be valuable to you. Within it holds a weaving narration between all these elements and the associated human characters. Also featured heavily is a conscious-unconscious dream-like respect of the Don Revie years and the despair of seasons and challenges left unfulfilled for a long time after.
Not being empathetic to any of the above factors would make this book a more tedious read for those relatively uninterested in any of the above as Clavane’s tapestry is rich, well-researched and detailed as well as full of personal anecdotes and commentaries. Let’s face it …. many of us are speculative and accumulative readers and as far as books are concerned we will try often, anything and potentially many. This book definitely needs a more discerning reader to do its quiet genius justice. To them it will shine a new light on an old and historical city, club and context. To me, it inspired a new love for people and places I have always be fond of.
Recommended to those above - see above. Digest, wonder and enjoy!
September 23, 2012
Brought back so many childhood memories, very moving
November 12, 2012
Fascinating social history of the city of Leeds told through the rise and fall of the football club in parrallel with that of the Jewish community.
May 13, 2013
A review of this book can be found at The Two Unfortunates football website here.
May 25, 2014
Best book on being a football fan since Fever Pitch.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews