By SJA President PATRICK COLLINS Five days before the opening of the 1978 World Cup, I sat in the Press Centre in Buenos Aires, staring at an e…
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Category: Books and reviews
Calvin confirms his status as one of the UK’s best sports writers of modern times
Former SJA chairman and national newspaper sports editor DAVID WALKER reviews the latest book by multi-award-winning sports journalist Michael Calvin …
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How grandson of a slave became Britain’s first black peer – the amazing story of cricketer Learie Constantine
Book review by ERIC BROWN Learie Constantine was a big man with a laugh to match. His guffaw reverberated around a room while his shoulders and chest …
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Before The Athletic, there was another journalism trailblazer … the ‘Athletic News’
By PHILIP BARKER Long before The Athletic, there was the ‘Athletic News’, essential reading for sports fans on either side of the first wo…
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No superlatives spared for Bobby Robson but ‘media mob’ take a battering
By PATRICK COLLINS, SJA President England lost a football match, and the usual suspects formed an orderly queue. Roy Keane – he of the tender heart …
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Football Annual goes marching on, right on time
By ERIC BROWN Just 25 days elapsed between the last major event of a uniquely damaged season and the thud on my doormat announcing arrival of football…
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Where fact meets fiction; love of Leeds sparks The Damned City
By TOM CLARKE Leeds have recruited a manager full of self-belief and new ideas, some of them controversial, with one clear mission: make us an importa…
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Veteran cricket journalist reveals Brian Close treasure trove of letters
By ROB STEWART Veteran cricket journalist David Warner has rolled back the years with an extraordinary book about English sporting icon Brian Close.&n…
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Diary of a season and with a happy ending – perfect timing for Wycombe Wanderers
They say timing is everything and that is certainly true for a new book on the fortunes of Wycombe Wanderers. SJA President PATRICK COLLINS reviews Cl…
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How sport tried to play on in WW 2 as the air raid sirens sounded
By ERIC BROWN With British sport trying to cope during the current Covid-19 pandemic, award-winning author Anton Rippon has gone back 80 years to high…
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