Top Ten Football Fiction – Anthony Clavane

It was a welcome find this week to discover a Guardian article from Anthony Clavane in which he listed a top ten of football fiction. His selections were as follows:

1. A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines

2. The Damned Utd by David Peace

3. The Unfortunates by BS Johnson

4. The Match by Alan Sillitoe [Review]

5. Goalkeepers Are Different by Brian Glanville

6. The Arsenal Stadium Mystery by Leonard R Gribble

7. The Man Who Hated Football by Will Buckley

8. How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won The FA Cup by JL Carr

9. The Football Factory by John King

10. The Hope That Kills Us: An Anthology of Scottish Football Fiction edited by Adrian Searle

My first reaction was to total the number of the titles I have actually read. For my sins, I have only read three of the ten, those being the offerings by David Peace, Brain Glanville and JL Carr. So racked with guilt at these gaps in my football reading line-up I intend to, when time permits, take on the challenge of reading the remaining seven and provide reviews for the entire list.

As ever footballbookreviews welcomes reviews from our readers and would like to hear of what you think of the list, perhaps with suggestions of what other books would be worthy of inclusion in your own top ten.