The Glory Game

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Davies was married to the writer Margaret Forster from 1960 [14] until her death in 2016. Their daughter Caitlin Davies is also an author. From 1963, the family lived in the north London district of Dartmouth Park. [15] [16] The second part of the book, "The Matches," provides a game-by-game account of Tottenham's season. Davies is a talented writer, and his descriptions of the matches are both vivid and engrossing. He captures the tension, drama, and excitement of each game, providing readers with a real sense of what it was like to be there. Davies also spends a significant amount of time discussing the tactics used by Bill Nicholson. He provides detailed descriptions of the training sessions and the drills that were used to prepare the team for games. He also explains the tactics used in each game and how they were adjusted throughout the season. This gives readers a better understanding of the strategic thinking that goes into football and how it can make a difference on the field. Half a century since Hunter Davies’ seminal book, The Glory Game, was first published, it remains one of football’s most revered tombs.

Davies, Hunter (20 July 2016). "Hunter Davies: After Margaret died, I had to sell our family home". The Daily Telegraph. London . Retrieved 16 December 2018. The Glory Game by Hunter Davies is a detailed examination of the players, coach, and strategies of a football team. Football in the 1970s was a completely different beast, and that shows not only in the game and the style of play but the players and coaches themselves. As other people have pointed out, there is racism, there is homophobia, there is a lot of misogyny (Bill Nicholson doesn't let his wife go to games, for example). I hate to use the phrase 'a product of its time' and these things can't and shouldn't be excused. But I suppose they also have to be read in their context, which is contemporary attitudes and also Hunter Davies meticulously transcribing and noting down every single thing that happens.

The Glory Game: Davies' Spurs Season '70s

But The Glory Game is more than just a book about football. It's a book about the culture and politics of football in the early 1970s. Davies provides insight into the changing attitudes towards football and the role of the media in shaping public opinion. He also delves into the complex relationships between players, coaches, and fans, and the impact that these relationships have on the success of a team. Conn is no nostalgic who believes the ’80s were a golden period – to him Wimbledon’s FA Cup triumph in 1988 was not so much a wonderful fairy tale as a victory for thuggery – but he is appalled by the descent of the game into rampant, barely regulated commercialism. “I think the end of the sharing of gate receipts in 1983 was the first break,” he says. I moved away from London a year ago and beside friends, Hampstead is what I miss the most, on any day, with rain or sun it was bringing me joy, calm and excitement. Sorry if this review is so far mainly about me and my time in Hampstead but it was impossible not to mention this before reviewing the book. His family moved to Carlisle in northern England when Davies was 11 and he attended the Creighton School in the city. Davies lived in Carlisle until he moved to study at university. During this time his father, who was a former Royal Air Force pay clerk, developed multiple sclerosis and had to retire on medical grounds from a civil service career. One of the most striking aspects of Davies' writing is his ability to humanize the players. He doesn't portray them as larger-than-life figures, but rather as regular people with families, personal struggles, and insecurities. For example, he writes about the pressure that star player Jimmy Greaves faced to perform on the field, as well as his battles with alcoholism and depression off the field.

The Creighton Report: A Year in the Life of a Comprehensive School (1976), Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 0-241-89412-3. The Glory Game by Hunter Davies is a timeless masterpiece of sports literature that continues to be popular among readers. Located four miles from the centre of London it is eight hundred acres of green space. It is not manicured by legions of gardeners, rather it is a place that most Londoners can get to on a tube that feels like the countryside. There are hills and lakes, rolling grasslands and wild parts (well for London anyway).

The Glory Game: A Timeless Sports Masterpiece

HUNTER DAVIES is the author of the only ever authorised biography of The Beatles, still in print in almost every country in the world. In 2012 he edited The Lennon Letters, published in 20 different foreign countries, and in 2014 The Beatles Lyrics. He wrote the first book about the Quarrymen. Plus forty other non-Beatly books, including novels, biographies, travel and children’s books. As a journalist, he has a column in The Sunday Times about money and in the New Statesman about football. Nantes: “All they have to do is play it simple. That’s the answer, but they won’t do it. When you get into difficulties, when the opposing team are doing well and not letting you do anything, all you do is play it very simple and things go your way.” Hunter Davies' book is based on the free access he was given to players and staff at Tottenham Hotspur in the early 1970's. There are no startling revelations - apart from one of the leading striker's devotion to the drink - but it is a fascinating insight into how a top team prepares for games and how it copes with the various triumphs and disasters of a league season - as it turned out a season that proved to be a particularly successful one for Spurs. Journalist Davies spent an entire season with the team, training with them, visiting the players’ homes and witnessing the dressing-room confrontations – a luxury that seems so alien in modern-day football’s PR-managed world.

In his book, The Glory Game, Hunter Davies takes readers on a journey through the 1971-72 season of Tottenham Hotspur football club. While the book is primarily a chronicle of the team's on-field successes and failures, Davies also delves into the personal lives of the players and the challenges they face both on and off the field. And to celebrate the 50th anniversary since The Glory Game came out, Well Offside photographer Mark Leech delves into the Offside Sports Photography Archive to dig out the pictures taken for the book.

Davies has stated that the first football team he supported was Queen of the South, when he lived in Dumfries. [1] After moving to Carlisle aged 11, he adopted English Football League club Carlisle United. [11] I was hoping for a bit more on his time with the Beatles and the 1960s more generally. Hunter touches on these areas but as he has written so many books, and newspaper columns, and done many other interesting things, he doesn't dwell on anything for long. The only subject that gets extensively covered is his life with Margaret. In 1972, Davies wrote a book about football, The Glory Game, a behind-the-scenes portrait of Tottenham Hotspur. Davies also wrote a column about his daily life in Punch called "Father's Day", presenting himself as a harried paterfamilias. In 1974, he was sent by The Sunday Times to look at a comprehensive school in action. He wrote three articles and then stayed on at the school – Creighton School in Muswell Hill, north London, now part of Fortismere School – to watch and study through a year in its life. The result was a book, the Creighton Report, published in 1976. [5] The book is divided into two parts. The first part, "The Men," provides an in-depth look at the personalities of the players, coaches, and staff. Davies spends time with each one, giving readers a behind-the-scenes look at their lives both on and off the pitch. From the hard-nosed manager Bill Nicholson to the star striker Martin Chivers, Davies captures the personalities of each member of the team with great detail.