A History of Spurs On The Pitch and Off The Drawing Board
On The Pitch and Off The Drawing Board
by Harry Harris
Tottenham Hotspur has always been the purists’ club of choice, and the roots of their association with the beautiful game run through the club like a stick of Blackpool rock. From Arthur Rowe to current manager Ange Postecoglou, Spurs are synonymous with some of the most attractive teams England has ever produced without quite getting the trophies that their football deserves—supporting Spurs is an honour as well as a burden at times.
With over 150 years of following the ups and downs of the Lilywhites between them, former Daily Mirror Chief Sports Writer Harry Harris and Paul Trevillion, the acclaimed artist behind Roy of the Rovers and You Are The Ref, have combined forces to produce a personal history of their beloved club since the war.
Paul first attended a Tottenham game in 1937 and was instantly attracted to the great Dixie Dean appearing for Everton at White Hart Lane in a famous FA Cup tie. Paul went on to draw the great striker hundreds of times and eventually got to meet his hero. Harry started following the club as a child in the early 1960s and his early obsession was with Jimmy Greaves, spending all his pocket money on old press photographs of the record-breaking Spurs striker. Perhaps these early obsessions set the pair on the way to their respective careers?
On The Pitch and Off The Drawing Board is packed full of anecdotes and behind-the-scenes stories from Spurs’ past, from the time Harry Harris challenged then manager Terry Neill to a race around the White Hart Lane pitch to Paul helping Gazza with his shooting training at Wembley just months before that free-kick in the FA Cup semi-final. This book is a must for all Tottenham fans.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: HARRY HARRIS is one of the foremost journalists of his generation, behind sensational headlines during his time as Chief Sports Writer at the Daily Mirror and Daily Express. He grew up a Spurs fan and landed his dream job on the Tottenham Weekly Herald exclusively following the club during a tumultuous period that saw the retirement of legendary manager Bill Nicholson. In time, Harry moved on to the Daily Mail before arriving at the Mirror, where he became Robert Maxwell’s eyes and ears in the football world. His investigations into Terry Venables and his closeness to successive Spurs owners Irving Scholar and Alan Sugar gave him a unique insight into the crises affecting the club as they struggled to keep up in the Premier League era but made him a controversial figure among a section of Spurs supporters.
PAUL TREVILLION has devised and drawn thousands of sporting features since the early 1950’s and over his eight decades in sport, has become known as the ‘Master of Movement’ for his unique ability to convey dynamic movement in a static image and bring the personality of a subject to life. His extraordinary artistic talent was discovered at a very young age and he was drawing for Eagle, Tiger and the Spurs supporters magazine, The Lilywhite, while still a schoolboy went on to revolutionise Roy of the Rovers in the 1960s and supplied illustrations for most of Fleet Street for the next six decades. A living legend, Paul recently turned 90 but remains an enthusiastic follower of Tottenham, having seen his first game aged just three years old.
ROYAL MAIL TRACKED 48
Publisher: Empire Publications
Published: June 12, 2024
Price: £20.00
Hardback: 234 pages
ISBN-10 : 1915616131
ISBN-13 : 978-1915616135
Dimensions: 214 x 237 x 23 (mm)
