My Favorite Year: A Collection of Football Writing

by Nick Hornby, D.J. Taylor, Huw Richards

Roddy Doyle's account of the Republic of Ireland's triumphant journey through Italia '90 is just one of the many first-class pieces in this anthology of original football writing. Contributors include Harry Pearson, Harry Ritchie, Ed Horton, Olly Wicken, D.J. Taylor, Huw Richards, Nick Hornby, Chris Pierson, Matt Nation, Graham Brack, Don Watson, and Giles Smith.

Genres: Football, Sports, Nonfiction, Soccer, Essays, Short Stories, British Literature

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Nicholas Peter John Hornby is an English writer and lyricist. He is best known for his memoir Fever Pitch (1992) and novels High Fidelity and About a Boy, all of which were adapted into feature films. Hornby's work frequently touches upon music, sport, and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists. His books have sold more than 5 million copies worldwide as of 2018. In a 2004 poll for the BBC, Hornby was named the 29th most influential person in British culture. He has received two Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay nominations for An Education (2009), and Brooklyn (2015).

Reviews

[Rūta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a fascinating read, actually. Hornby's, Wicken's, and Doyle's pieces were my favorites. Overall, it's full of emotion and love for football in all its forms.

[Arwen56 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Questa volta ho proprio sbagliato l'acquisto. Certo, io non amo il calcio e forse avrei dovuto immaginare che non poteva essere un libro adatto a me, ma pensavo che si trattasse di racconti in chiave ironica o spiritosa, in linea con lo stile di Hornby, che ha curato la raccolta. In effetti, qualcuno lo è, ma in linea di massima si parla piuttosto in dettaglio di partite, calciatori, arbitri e punteggi del campionato irlandese o inglese, a me del tutto sconosciuti. Faccio già fatica a ricordarmi qualche giocatore delle squadre italiane, figuriamoci questi. Di conseguenza, mi sono annoiata a morte nel leggerlo. Ma dipende da me e dal mio disinteresse per la materia. Magari a qualcuno di voi potrebbe anche piacere.

La raccolta comprende i seguenti racconti:
Roddy Doyle - Repubblica è una bellissima parola
Harry Pearson - Un campionato di tranquilla inutilità
Harry Ritchie - Take my whole life too
Ed Horton - Scomparire?
Olly Wicken - Illusioni di grandeur
D.J. Taylor - Fattene una ragione,
Hansen Huw Richards - Il Vangelo secondo san Giovanni l'Alchimista
Nick Hornby - Il vizio di Abbey
Chris Pierson - L'anno d'oro Matt Nation - Cosce da elefante
Graham Brack - Où sont les Neiges d'Antan?
Don Watson - Psycho Mike e il pattinaggio fantasma
Giles Smith - Sul campo per posta

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of stories that will resonate with any fan who dimly recalls the origin of their dedication to a single team. Well worth the read.

[Godzilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quirkly little collection of football memoirs, from a diverse group of writers.

The clubs and memories here are, for the most part, lesser known and from a pre-Sky tv era.

It took me back to my first football experiences, standing on terraces, kids being shoved down to the front, so you could see the action, or what passed for action on the muddy quagmires the pitches inevitably were.

Some of the contributors here wouldn't appear out of place in Rain Man, such is their grasp of stats and recall of scorers.

My memories blur from one crap experience to another, but that is exactly the magic that these stories convey: the feeling of helplessness and dismay from supporting a truly terrible team.

I wore my team's lack of silverware as a badge of honour: no glory hunting catcalls for me, just unremitting monotony.

These are tales for a true football fan, who will empathise and smile along with the unceasing optimism displayed within these pages.

[Nick Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read - several short autobiographical tales by male authors/journalists (mainly) focussing on their experiences as a football supporter. There's a decent range of teams covered - from international to non-league - and stories from the 1960s to the 1990s. There is a quirky added pleasure due to the book having written in 1993.. Chelsea before they were so good, Leeds before they were so crap.

However, the problem is that there isn't much breadth in the style. It's blokes talking about football in a rose-tinted nostalgic and occasionally humourous way, with the sense most of the reminiscing is personal to thise concerned. Additionally, most chapters were a bit similar, having been written separately. There's only so many ways you can say "When I was young I wasn't allowed to stay up for late games, my Dad told me the score at breakfast.." or "I collected football memorabilia when I was young".

[David Hogg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chapters in the lives of ardent football fans are interesting to read if you're a fan yourself. It's comforting to know that you're not the only person prepared to stand in the rain watching eleven people kick a ball around, that you're not the only person who wouldn't trade his first born to be one of those eleven and that you're not the only person whose Sunday mood depends on what happens on the Saturday.

However, as one of the writers commented, it's not as interesting if it's not your club you're reading about, which is why this is only getting 4 stars.

[Lloyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ahead of contributing to a similar style, if slightly lower profile, collection of 'my favourite season' stories I borrowed this from Russell.

It was enjoyable enough; even though the book published almost 20 years ago, it still possesses much currency and certain pieces were an absolute joy to read, particularly Olly Wicken's ballboy-eye view of Watford's 74-75 campaign.

If you collect football literature, then this should be on your shelves.

[Trevor Kew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great read for anyone who loves football. Several well-known writers discuss their favourite teams' most memorable football seasons. Nick Hornby's hilarious story about Cambridge United's losing streak is great, but my favourite has to be Roddy Doyle's account of his "heroic" trip to the toilet that led to Ireland scoring a vital goal against England. The one about Watford is amazing too!

[Gabi · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be fair, I don't suppose I'm the intended audience for this book. I like football, I take great pleasure in a good match, but I'm not what you'd call a fan.
I enjoyed some of the stories in this collection, I liked the nostalgic flavour, but it all got quite repetitive after a while, and I honestly couldn't care less about the lists of names and matches and scores of the seasons covered.

[Andy Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

My kind of book. My memories of 1990 World Cup are so clear and this really took me back. I felt book was a touch disjointed in places but still portrayed the emotions very well.

[Keen Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Premier League fans become entangled in the deadly seriousness of it all, but lower league football takes itself less seriously, has more sense of enjoyment and relaxation and fewer expectations.”

Now I don’t think for a second that all fans share this belief, but the general point is made. This is a book which very much concerns itself with some of the more unassuming corners of the British footballing landscape. This is also one of its biggest appeals, the largely unassuming content. The vast majority focus on lesser known clubs and their various struggles and achievements, which makes it all the more refreshing.

Raith Rovers, St Albans City, Bristol City and Swansea City are just some of the teams featured. We also end up at some better known destinations, though more renowned for their tertiary education, than their style of football - Oxford United (Which is as much about the Maxwell ownership era as the football season or club itself). Cambridge United (their 83/84 season which saw them going an incredible thirty-one games without a win in the then Second Division).

These are stories filled with tales of scrappy local derbies and other rivalries on and off the pitch. Its more about the grit than the glamour, these are the teams that tend to play in the sort of grounds where you are more likely to cheer on characters with flaws rather than stars with talent. And of course these are accounts which are a compact festival of facts, stats, trivia and grudges, that goes along with being a football fan.

Broadly speaking what we get here are humble people following humble clubs, with humble ambitions, understandably this may not sound overly exciting to most, but to football fans and in particular those who follow smaller clubs, this can be a really rewarding and relatable collection of essays.

[Horatio · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a collection of essays about football fans' favourite games/seasons from their club's histories. I was recommended this book by Rachel after really enjoying Fever Pitch (one of the best books i've ever read, and THE definitive book on being a football fan), but she did give me fair warning that it was nowhere as good, and I agree with her assessment.

Many of the chapters were talking about a specific season in a club's history that I had no interest in, and I felt like that experience was not particularly relatable. I guess it's also because many of the essays were for lower-league clubs, and I support a mega-club, thus I couldn't really empathise with what it was like to win promotion from League 2 to League 1, or to finally see your club go to the quarter-finals of the FA cup as a non-league side.

I'm also not sure if the submissions were from fans or actual writers, but I felt that the quality of writing was nowhere near what was produced in Fever Pitch. It felt much more amateur, like something you would read on a blog. However, the passion did come through, which is the most important.

[MarcMiccia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Take my whole life too...
Partiamo dal presupposto che io adoro Hornby come autore.
A settembre, al ritorno dalle vacanze estive, mi sono trovato in libreria e ho acquistato ad occhi chiusi questo libro pensando fosse un romanzo simile a "Febbre a 90" dello stesso autore.
Oggi è Dicembre e ci sono voluti 3 mesi per "finire" questo libro. Perchè?
Perchè è una raccolta di 12 racconti o più sul calcio. Tutti quanti sul calcio inglese. Tutti quanti sulle serie minori. Ripetitivi e tedianti.
Dov'è Nick Hornby? In un racconto di 12 pagine (pessimo tra l'altro)
SOFFERENZA!
"Illusioni di grandeur" di Olly Wicken e "L'anno d'oro" di Chris Pierson sono gli unici due racconti simpatici che raggiungono la mediocrità..

[Pablo Renzi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Una raccolta di racconti. Uno comincia spiegando che le storie di calcio sono interessanti solo quando parlano della tua squadra, agli altri non interessano granché, e andando avanti nel libro ti accorgi che è abbastanza vero: sono scritte bene, qualcuna riesce a essere anche divertente, ma alla fine piacciono solo ai tifosi di questa o quella squadra di cui ti stanno raccontando le gesta. Peraltro sono tutte squadre inglesi di categorie minori, scelte durante campionati che risalgono a venti o trent'anni fa, in cui giocavano personaggi di cui non ho mai sentito parlare. Tranne qualche momento piacevole in cui ho rivisto la stessa passione che ho provato io allo stadio o a seguire in televisione le vicissitudini della mia squadra, mi sono generalmente rotto il cazzo.

[Christopher Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A reasonable collection of 'New' (ie, highly personal) football journalism, each story the review, more or less, of one year in the life of that supporter and his team. Some of the contributions were interesting, though none really stood out as prime examples of the craft.

[Steve Srubowich · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you love football, soccer to North Americans, this colourful and passionate embrace of the game will warm your senses & make you laugh & cheer for the underdogs who exist everywhere!

[Gordon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well written entries. But few age well.

[Helen Magee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting collection of fans stories from a range of clubs

[Jonny Brick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great compilation brought together by Mr Fever Pitch to explain to readers why football isn't just two groups of people fighting in the stands and streets.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Random thoughts about My Favorite Year: A Collection of Football Writing, edited by Nick Hornby:

Provenance: Purchased at thriftbooks.com after my wife discovered the site. She needed to add to her order to qualify for free shipping, so I sucked it up and forced myself to order two books.

Expectations: Hornby wrote Fever Pitch, which most people know from the movie about fans of the Boston Red Sox. Hornby’s book is about his time following Arsenal, the Boston Red Sox of England’s soccer leagues. Since Hornby is a rabid soccer fan, and having read and enjoyed several of his other books, I had high expectations for this.

The Story: Thirteen writers select their favorite year of the team that they root for. In almost every case, “root for” is not even close to their level of commitment. These are fans who are fanatical about their teams. They live and die with the results of each match.

Some of the writers chose years when they were kids, writing about how they got sucked in to making this team their obsession. Others chose years when they were adults, following their team around Europe to different competitions.

What it's really about: I am a baseball fan (Dodgers) like these guys are soccer fans. For many years, my mood was dictated by whether the Dodgers won or lost the night before. I remember being nine- and ten-years-old when the Yankees beat the Dodgers in the World Series two years in a row. I cried both times.

It is hard to appreciate this book unless you understand that feeling, because it comes up a lot in these pages. It’s not rational, and on some level we as fans realize that it is a little ridiculous. Nonetheless, it is our obsession. As we age, we realize that there are more important things in life – family, children, etc. That being said, when my wife and I were getting more serious with dating I told her, “I go to about twenty Dodger games a year. If you’re okay with that we can go together. If you’re not, I’m going by myself.”

This book illustrates very well how our obsessions affect us. Whether it’s a sports team, or books, or Taylor Swift, etc. they provide solace in difficult times, something that we can fall into when we need to escape the world.

Of Note: Roddy Doyle is one of the writers. He most famously wrote The Commitments, about a group of young Irish kids who form an R & B band, which was made into a movie.

The other contributors are mostly, but not solely, writers. The writers don’t necessarily write primarily about sports. Several of the contributors are not writers at all. It is a good “everyman’s” perspective on fandom.

Picking Nits: This is a very British book, and lots of specifically British and soccer terms are used. If you are not familiar with them, it might be distracting, though I think you can generally get the gist of what the author is saying.

Some readers may find a bit of repetition in the stories. I think there is some of that, but the writer’s perspective is different each time.

Recommendation: Soccer fans will like this a lot. There is a lot of soccer history here. It was interesting reading about times when the clubs that are so dominant today were near the bottom of the league (or in a lower league altogether). It took me back to when England’s soccer leagues were much more egalitarian.

[Ximena Mcintosh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some stories more enjoyable than others but I understand where all these men are coming from. It would probably be better if you are British...