Search: 'obituaries'
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It’s not just pros who have to make plans for retirement. As Neil Wills explained, hanging up your boots can have a big effect on an amateur
The Best Of The Guardian’s Footballing Obituaries
by Brian Glanville
Guardian Books, £12.99
Reviewed by Taylor Parkes
From WSC 264 February 2009
The first real heavyweight of British sports journalism, and the only one to have contributed sketches to That Was The Week That Was, Brian Glanville remains something of a national treasure. His eloquent, sharply cynical style, drenched in arcane phraseology, literary allusions and brutally condescending wit, highlights the enduring lack of personality in football writing (at least, the kind of personality you’d want to sit next to at dinner). Any writer who believes that football and intelligence need not be mutually exclusive – at least not all the time – owes him a large debt of gratitude. This collection of obituaries from the pages of the Guardian is not the best platform for Glanville the stylist, but a fine showcase for his strengths as a journalist: that astonishing, exhaustive knowledge of football history, an eye for detail, and the ability to pack each paragraph with information while keeping the prose clean, clear and eminently readable.
by Ivan Ponting
Know the Score, £16.99
Reviewed by Roger Tiford
From WSC 257 July 2008
There are two types of obituary, the personal – written by someone who knew the deceased – and the professional. Ex-footballers tend not to have close friends or family who can offer a thousand finely wrought words at the drop of a chap so, for the benefit of readers of the Independent, Ivan Ponting has being doing this duty for the past 15 years. Given that newspaper’s circulation, this collection of obituaries will be fresh, yet timeless, material for the vast majority of fans.
Adam Powley pays tribute to Tottenham's greatest-ever manager, Bill Nicholson
The death of an 85-year-old man, after a full and productive life punctuated with sporting success and unchallengeable achievement, is not a tragedy. Yet Bill Nicholson’s passing has been much lamented by Tottenham fans – understandably so, for the reaction to Nicholson’s life speaks volumes not only for the esteem in which he is held, but also for the way it symbolises the end of an era.