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The Season Ticket
This is the story of a friendship between a modern-day Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, set in northeast England. Sewell is tall and strong, Gerry is small yet crafty. Both are broke. They have only one purpose in life. They each want a season ticket to Newcastle United. And for that they need money, lots of money. The Season Ticket is the story of how they go about getting it.
- GenresFiction
241 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 8, 2020
I should thank my old friend Rob Jakeman for passing me his copy of this book in the late 90s. Despite living in the middle of Rugeley he was the most fanatical member of the Toon Army who ever breathed.
This is a short novel about two teenagers trying to save, scrape and thieve enough cash to get a season ticket to see their beloved Magpies [Newcastle United FC]. This book was unusual in that the film tie-in was issued before the regular paperback. It drew some flip comparisons to Roddy Doyle - reflecting, perhaps, how Tulloch's agent pitched it to Jonathan Cape. The main influence is plainly Of Mice and Men.
At the time there were other British writers asking just who the game was being run by and for. But so far as I know Tulloch was the first to show how its core working-class base was being priced out, and how football is the Church of rust-belt England.
Bleak but bracing. The film (Purely Belter) was arguably better.
This is a short novel about two teenagers trying to save, scrape and thieve enough cash to get a season ticket to see their beloved Magpies [Newcastle United FC]. This book was unusual in that the film tie-in was issued before the regular paperback. It drew some flip comparisons to Roddy Doyle - reflecting, perhaps, how Tulloch's agent pitched it to Jonathan Cape. The main influence is plainly Of Mice and Men.
At the time there were other British writers asking just who the game was being run by and for. But so far as I know Tulloch was the first to show how its core working-class base was being priced out, and how football is the Church of rust-belt England.
Bleak but bracing. The film (Purely Belter) was arguably better.
January 15, 2019
Make no mistake, this is a brilliant novel. And while most people seem to want to compare it to one of Roddy Doyle's Barrytown works, it more properly belongs alongside Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. Like Welsh's breakthrough book, conversations are transcribed in local dialect and slang (the Geordie of Newcastle), once you get the rhythm of it, it's lovely. And as in Trainspotting, Tulloch is interested in humanizing the inhabitants of modern Britain's slums and ghettos-here through Gerry and Sewell, two teenage boys living in Gateshead. They play truant from school, wandering aimlessly, joyriding and thieving until they give voice their dream: to save up enough money to buy season tickets for Newcastle United.
From that point on, all their half-baked scams and grafting are focused on attaining that prize. In the background is Gerry's impoverished family life: his mother slowly dying, a sister missing on the streets, a baby nephew and grandmother who need caring for, repo men coming for the TV, not enough money for sugar, and always lurking in the shadows, an abusive and alcoholic father who they all must hide from. Rescuing this from being a simple portrait of poverty is the loyal friendship between crafty Gerry and large but slow dog-loving Sewell (bringing to mind Of Mice and Men).
The two are minor criminals, but it's hard not to keep rooting for them, even when one of their schemes goes nastily awry. To be fair to the comparisons to Roddy Doyle, Tulloch's narrative is more linear, he doesn't engage in the kind of phantasmagorical pyrotechnics Welsh does, not is it as formless as Trainspotting. Rather, the book is a masterpiece of bittersweet minimalist observation. If Alan Sillitoe had been born 35 years later, this is a book he might have written. Oh yes, and if anyone thinks the portrayal of Gateshead is overwrought, read Danziger's Britain, and prepare to be depressed about the state of modern Britain.
Tulloch's next book, The Bonny Lad, is equally brilliant and is set in the same neighborhood, with some of the same minor characters.
From that point on, all their half-baked scams and grafting are focused on attaining that prize. In the background is Gerry's impoverished family life: his mother slowly dying, a sister missing on the streets, a baby nephew and grandmother who need caring for, repo men coming for the TV, not enough money for sugar, and always lurking in the shadows, an abusive and alcoholic father who they all must hide from. Rescuing this from being a simple portrait of poverty is the loyal friendship between crafty Gerry and large but slow dog-loving Sewell (bringing to mind Of Mice and Men).
The two are minor criminals, but it's hard not to keep rooting for them, even when one of their schemes goes nastily awry. To be fair to the comparisons to Roddy Doyle, Tulloch's narrative is more linear, he doesn't engage in the kind of phantasmagorical pyrotechnics Welsh does, not is it as formless as Trainspotting. Rather, the book is a masterpiece of bittersweet minimalist observation. If Alan Sillitoe had been born 35 years later, this is a book he might have written. Oh yes, and if anyone thinks the portrayal of Gateshead is overwrought, read Danziger's Britain, and prepare to be depressed about the state of modern Britain.
Tulloch's next book, The Bonny Lad, is equally brilliant and is set in the same neighborhood, with some of the same minor characters.
August 17, 2025
Set In Newcastle about two lads trying to achieve their dream of getting a season ticket for the toon. It's full of social commentary about the state of the lower class in the 90s and how even football was pushing them out. I only found this book due to a bundle of books I purchased and it bought back floods of memories as I'd seen the Film adaptation Purely Belter as a kid with my brother and cousins watching it repeatedly. A film that's fallen out of public knowledge but from memory a great funny British film. From what I remember though only parts of this book are truly adapted in the film as this goes for a mixture of comedy with social commentary as the film does but this version is more grounded and the film more heightened reality and happy endings but both work in their own way. The only problem I had at times is the way the prose of the book are written at times have deep description of the scenery and metaphors of Newcastle's scenery which although beautiful don't to ally match the rest of the book. Enjoyable, funny and easy read especially from those from the north of England.
November 22, 2023
I really enjoyed this book, which at first glance appears to be a classic tale of two tearaways, friends who tear a path through their locality in a series of misadventures. But it is considerably more than that as it explores how society sticks a thumb on individuals' heads and keeps them in their place, destroying any hope or ambition.
The setting is Newcastle in the late 1990s , a city changing, so the football team became exclusive to those who can afford a season ticket, but parts of the city are impoverished unable to afford to eat. Gerrymandering and Sewell are two late teenagers excluded and avoiding a school where the head teachers dislike them. They hatch a plan to raise money to buy season tickets for their beloved Toon. The plans soon find them gradually sinking despite their never-ending optimism.
A tale of friendship these are characters I loved, which made the finale all the more difficult. Really enjoyable read.
The setting is Newcastle in the late 1990s , a city changing, so the football team became exclusive to those who can afford a season ticket, but parts of the city are impoverished unable to afford to eat. Gerrymandering and Sewell are two late teenagers excluded and avoiding a school where the head teachers dislike them. They hatch a plan to raise money to buy season tickets for their beloved Toon. The plans soon find them gradually sinking despite their never-ending optimism.
A tale of friendship these are characters I loved, which made the finale all the more difficult. Really enjoyable read.
May 30, 2021
Can't really compare it to the film as only a couple of things happen in both, the ending in the book is completely different from the film, as is the last 'main' part. The book really takes in the geography of the Heed and the way things are described you feel like you're there, I know and have been to every place described in the book.
January 1, 2026
Two minor criminals who you can’t help but root for.
On the surface, this is a story about scams, grafting and the church of NUFC. However, lurking amongst this dream is a loyal friendship (best compared to George and Lennie); a truthful portrait of poverty; and a system that fails its people. This story is a series of blunt observations, rather than elaborate dramatisations.
On the surface, this is a story about scams, grafting and the church of NUFC. However, lurking amongst this dream is a loyal friendship (best compared to George and Lennie); a truthful portrait of poverty; and a system that fails its people. This story is a series of blunt observations, rather than elaborate dramatisations.
August 5, 2018
Sorry Mr Tulloch, I picked this book up at a holiday Villa after finishing Murakami’s Norwegian Wood. Almost certainly not a fair book to try and compare yours with. Subsequently I could not finish it despite it’s easy narrative. It felt like it was trying to be a Roddy Doyle novel.......it isn’t.
May 20, 2020
Cracking story.
October 14, 2024
Brilliant.
August 4, 2011
Apparently this book has been made into a film, and I'm not surprised because all the way through I was thinking it would probably be twice as funny done visually. It was amusing to read, but not laugh-out-loud. Several amusing scenarios were created - not least the two Newcastle fans finding themselves in the home end at the Stadium of Light.
I was generally more impressed by the story's more serious side, and the depressing but bleak vision of Gateshead through the four seasons, a land of overcrowded hospitals, schools full of delinquents, and housing estates full of lager-swilling mums and tab-smoking primary school children. Amazing, really, that it managed to be funny, but it did. Liked the North-East dialect throughout ("Ha'way man, divven't piss aboot"), and the book introduced new verb 'to twoc' (well it was new to me anyway). Dated somewhat by its reference, at one point, to 'The Toon' being at the top of the league - when has that happened recently, unless you're talking about the Championship? - but otherwise a very readable and thought-provoking statement on modern life at the wrong end of the economic scale.
I was generally more impressed by the story's more serious side, and the depressing but bleak vision of Gateshead through the four seasons, a land of overcrowded hospitals, schools full of delinquents, and housing estates full of lager-swilling mums and tab-smoking primary school children. Amazing, really, that it managed to be funny, but it did. Liked the North-East dialect throughout ("Ha'way man, divven't piss aboot"), and the book introduced new verb 'to twoc' (well it was new to me anyway). Dated somewhat by its reference, at one point, to 'The Toon' being at the top of the league - when has that happened recently, unless you're talking about the Championship? - but otherwise a very readable and thought-provoking statement on modern life at the wrong end of the economic scale.
June 10, 2010
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สำนวนคอกนีย์ขนานแท้และดั้งเดิม มันเป็นเสน่ห์อย่างหนึ่งของหนังสือเล่มนี้
อยากจะบอกว่า ใช้เวลากับมันถึงสี่เดือนเลยทีเีดียว ทั้งที่เป็นหนังสืออ่านง่ายแท้ๆ
สำนวนคอกนีย์ขนานแท้และดั้งเดิม มันเป็นเสน่ห์อย่างหนึ่งของหนังสือเล่มนี้
อยากจะบอกว่า ใช้เวลากับมันถึงสี่เดือนเลยทีเีดียว ทั้งที่เป็นหนังสืออ่านง่ายแท้ๆ
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews