PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Harry Pearson is a journalist and writer who contributes regularly to the GUARDIAN, WHEN SATURDAY COMES and a number of those men's magazines with women in bras on the cover. His second book, RACING PIG S AND GIANT MARROWS, was shortlisted for the Thomas Cook/DAILY TELEGRAPH Travel Book of the Year.
Since the cash-cow that was Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch, there have been any number of literate soccer books, most of them not worth a place on the sub's bench at Runcorn. This is a rare exception. The book is shot through with football folklore, and with football people: the local shopkeeper's obsession with Len Shackleton, the Seaham fan with the unparalleled mastery of the soccer cliche, the Sunderland Skinhead, and Hughie Gallagher all make memorable appearances. A word of warning though - a mastery of soccer trivia is a help. If the boozy world of Alan Foggon is a mystery to you, some parts of this may need translation. (Kirkus UK)
