Memories............... Charles Buchan's Football Monthly, which debuted in 1951 and quickly became a fan favourite among football fans of all ages, peaked at over 100,000 copies sold. It was essentially the first football "glossy," with hand-tinted photos on the cover and back page, some of which were so vibrantly artistic that they could stand alone as fine art mages. Rex Martin's cartoon in the Dick Barton style, a boy's club, and regular pieces by historical personalities were all featured in the magazine. This vibrant gift book is a collection of the best articles from this storied publication, spanning its 20-year run. It replicates magazine articles, interviews, photos, letters, and advertising in facsimile format.
It serves as a reminder of what many people would consider the heyday of football, when players weren't the highly compensated media celebrities they are now, when Brylcreem was the only fashion statement, and when little boys constructed goalposts out of jumpers. The book will appeal to lovers of football who miss the good old days as well as to all football supporters who are sick of the overbearing consumerism, prim players foreign millionaires of today. In mint condition, published with laminated boards, 176 Pages, Published in 2008 by Malavan Media
Annual 2: Football's Comic Book Heroes
Memories............... Boys' comics have provided their readers with entertainment, excitement, and escapism ever since they were first published in the late nineteenth century. Boys comics started to regularly include athletes of all stripes during the first half of the 20th as participation and attendance at sporting events increased substantially, with footballers emerging as the clear favourite. In the 1960s, cartoon-strip-style football comics gained enormous popularity, with some of the most well-known titles including Rover, Hotspur, and Wizard.
Despite the fact that these comics are no longer in print, boys and men of all ages continue to show a sizable amount of interest in them, and the culture of the comic-book hero lives on. Popular publishers Limp Along Leslie, Roy Race, Billy Dane, and Hotshot Hamish are among the iconic footballers that graced the pages of boys comics that the renowned publisher D.C. Thomson has combed through its archives to compile the ultimate list of. The Ultimate Fantasy Football Team is a distinctive, nostalgic overview of the football comic book phenomenon that has been thoroughly studied to explore the history and the narratives connected with these comics and its heroes.
Hardback in mint condition with dust jacket, 256 Pages, Published in 2009 by Transworld Ltd.
Annual 3: The Heyday of the Football Annual
Memories................ Christmas Day 1959 and legions of schoolboys up and down the country feverishly unwrapped the very first Topical Times Football Book. On the cover Bobby Charlton smacked a leather ball out of a pillar-box red background and, although this wasn’t the first yearbook, it heralded the golden age of the Christmas football annual. As the sixties progressed, the shelves in Woolworth’s and the local newsagent began to bulge with titles reflecting the expanding, exciting world of football – Charles Buchan’s Soccer Gift Book nestled next to the International Football Book and the Midlands Soccer Annual.
These annuals were educational and insightful, taking the reader into the changing rooms, the supporters’ club lounges, and the manager’s mind ahead of a tough season. Beautifully illustrated, they helped shape the football consciousness of a generation.
In The Heyday of The Football Annual Ian Preece and Doug Cheeseman bottle the essence of these publications. They travel back in time to a world where Forfar Athletic and Doncaster Rovers had equal billing with Manchester United and Arsenal, where debate raged over the use of goal average, and Huddersfield v Carlisle was the main game on Match of the Day.
Along the way, leading football writers Richard Williams, Jonathan Wilson, Patrick Collins and Derek Hammond, among others, share their memories – not only of ‘soccer’ annuals but of an era when the unveiling of Dundee’s new stand was deemed worthy of a two-page spread, and Scunthorpe’s pre-season tour to Ibiza merited a lengthy feature. This was a world where footballers grew chrysanthemums for a hobby, drank tea down the local café to pass the time, and Coventry City were the go-ahead club of the future. For better, and (certainly) for worse, it’s a world long gone.
In mint condition with dust jacket, 256 Pages, Published in 2015 by Little Brown Book Group.
