The Penalty Kick
The Story of a Gamechanger
By Robert McCrum
In the 1880s, football was a violent and frequently hazardous sport. Consequently, a passionate amateur custodian in Co. Armagh, Northern Ireland, and heir to a linen fortune, William McCrum, suggested a novel and harsh punishment: a penalty kick that would chastise anyone—as well as their team—for breaking the rules. The International Football Association initially rejected "The Irishman's Motion" because they believed it would restrict players' freedom of speech. But in 1891, players and supporters embraced the penalty kick with great enthusiasm. Not only has this remarkable phenomenon governed football behaviour for almost a century, but it has also influenced game theorists and permeated modern literary classics. The Penalty Kick's captivating portrayal of a bygone era. It explores the psychological, even philosophical, hold that the penalty kick has on our imaginations, reducing risk and chance to an all-or-nothing situation, all the while looking at the history and significance of an astonishing phenomenon.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Writer and editor Robert McCrum released his most recent book, Shakespearean, to great praise in 2021. Once the literary editor of the Observer and the editor-in-chief of Faber & Faber, where he published a wide range of authors including Kazuo Ishiguro, Hanif Kureishi, Milan Kundera, Peter Carey, Danilo Kis, Paul Auster, Marilynne Robinson, Lorrie Moore, Adam Phillips, Mario Vargas Llosa, Jayne Anne Phillips, Orhan Pamuk, and Adam Mars-Jones, In addition, he is the author of the beloved book My Year Off (1998) and Wadehouse: A Life (2004).
ROYAL MAIL TRACKED48
Publisher: Notting Hill Editions
Publication: October 8, 2024
Price: £15.99
ISBN-10: 1912559579
ISBN 13: 978-1912559572
Dimensions: 12.07 x 19.05 x 5 cm
Hardcover, 168 page
