Almanac Book Review: ‘Football Fans: in their own write’ – David Picken

August 2, 2023 by haysoc Leave a Comment

David Picken, Football Fans: in their own write…, Fairplay Publishing, Balgowlah Heights, New South Wales, 2023. ISBN 9781925914757, RRP $29.99.

David Picken, himself a devoted football fan, had the bright idea of summoning a goodly number of the similarly afflicted to put the stories of their allegiances down on paper and then published them in this compendium. As one of the contributors I cannot pretend to an unbiased review, so please allow for this being as much a promotion for the book as an assessment. But it is a bloody good read. It comes in small, easily consumed, though sometimes quite profound, chunks. The cast list is extraordinary including the current Pope, lifted from an Encyclical, the female Bishop of Derby and the face of the United Kingdom’s response to COVID, Sir Jonathan Van-Tam. Locals are represented among others by Chris Nikou, Chair of Football Australia, Steve Darby, Heather Garriock, Brendan Schwab and Simon Hill, a Manchester City tragic. The brilliant and committed film director Ken Loach, referee Keith Hackett, and representing the volunteers who allow the game to survive at local level, Victoria Morton, from South Hobart, are present too. So it is an engaging mix and even though there is a common thread of deeply held allegiance running through all the accounts, there is more than enough variety in the stories to hold your interest.

Fans of other codes will recognise kindred spirits. I remember our esteemed founder, John Harms, arguing that soccer would never quite establish the same visceral connection in Australia, or at least in Victoria, as the local unique football code. I challenged him on that and after last night’s performance by the Matildas I would raise the flag again. But I think this book compiled by David Picken has lots of supporting evidence too. Locals are a minority among the authors, but I don’t detect any lack of engagement on their part and I am certain that had he cast his net more widely locally Picken could have supplied many more contributors.

The genre may not have begun with Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch, but his account of his obsession with Arsenal Football Club, not with football more widely, always struck me as excessively limiting on his part. His subsequent oeuvre showed him to be much less one-dimensional. David Picken’s collection captures a variety too in the fan base of our football clubs and I’d invite devotees of the local code to sample it for its contribution to understanding the human condition.

The book can be purchased from the publisher Here