Mr. Shankly's Photograph : A Journey from the Kop to the Cavern

by Stephen F. Kelly

'Dear Mr Shankly, I don't suppose you will remember me but my uncle Horace used to live next door to you in Huddersfield when you were the manager there... I wanted to welcome you to Liverpool. I hope you will be very successful...' A holiday photograph of a 10-year-old lad leaning over the garden fence with Huddersfield Town Manager Bill Shankly is the starting point for an enduring bond. That photograph condemns Stephen Kelly to a lifelong passion for Liverpool Football Club, while Shakly's homespun philosophy opens up new perspectives for him. Few people in any walk of life - and none in football - have stamped their personality and individuality on a city and its folk as Bill Shankly did on Liverpool. Shankly, the Kop and the Cavern. Was there ever a more thrilling place for any young person than Liverpool in the Sixties? You never know how good it is until it's gone.

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2004

About the author

Stephen F. Kelly is an English author and broadcaster, born in Liverpool, England in June 1946. He is the author of many books, mostly on football and in particular on Liverpool Football Club. He has written a number of biographies of football managers including Bill Shankly, Sir Alex Ferguson, Kenny Dalglish and Gerard Houllier as well as an oral history of Liverpool Football Club. He was one of the first writers in Britain to explore sport through oral history, not only with The Kop but also with his oral history of Manchester United Football Club, Red Voices, and a further book on Liverpool, The Bootroom Boys.