Book Review: The Got, Not Got Football Gift Book – Every Fan’s Catalogue of Desires (No: 1) by Derek Hammond & Gary Silke

As I write, we are still six weeks away from Christmas Day, however, after reading The Got, Not Got Football Gift Book – Every Fan’s Catalogue of Desires, I feel like Christmas has indeed come early.

Following the excellent Glove Story: The Number 1 book for every goalkeeper, past and present, Derek Hammond and Gary Silke have come up with another winner. This look at football memorabilia from the 1960s to the 1990s is split over thirteen colour-coded chapters which cover everything from programmes and comics to stickers and trading cards.  

I will freely admit I am a man of a certain age, so in turning over each gloriously colourful A4 page, memories of items I used to have and many that I had simply forgotten about, have been reignited. Of course, this book is very much a visual feast, but the tongue-in-cheek observational notes that accompany the items add to the experience as each page is scanned.

The research that has gone into the book is wonderful and proves to be useful when looking at the history and changes in areas such as football comics and magazines, where new titles appeared, merged and in some cases disappeared altogether. Useful too are the links in the book and in the Acknowledgments, which gives readers the chance to go on-line discover even more treasures from some extensive football collections.

This is by no means an exhaustive gathering of goodies of a golden age, as the authors acknowledge and given the fact that No:1 is included in the book title, one hopes that a second volume is indeed in the planning.

It is a book that will have appeal to football fans old and new, so whether you are a reader reminiscing about badges, scarves and programmes that have long since been confined to the loft or a fresh faced supporter stunned by what passed for club merchandise down the years, there is something for you.