Tony Collins is Emeritus Professor of History in the International Centre for Sports History and Culture at De Montfort University, UK. His previous books include Rugby's Great Split, Rugby League in Twentieth Century Britain, A Social History of English Rugby Union and The Oval World - each of which won the Lord Aberdare prize for sports history book of the year - as well as his global history Sport in Capitalist Society.
The origins of football's many codes and their complex relationship to each other has been one of sporting history's great grey areas, dominated by hearsay and invention. No longer. Tony Collins' cool and illuminating How Football Began brings range, precision and sources to bear on the matter. As is often the case, the truths that emerge are infinitely more interesting than the myths they dispel. David Goldblatt, Author of The Ball is Round: A Global History of Football and The Game of Our Lives