Answered Prayers: England and the 1966 World Cup by Duncan Hamilton Paperback Bo

Description: Answered Prayers by Duncan Hamilton A remarkable look at the 1966 World Cup, the most famous sporting event in English history, and a portrait of an age by our greatest writer on sport. FORMAT Paperback CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description A Financial Times Book of the Year 2023A Daily Express Book of the Year 2023Magnificent, moving, often funny and deeply researched account . . . Is this just a book for those who know football? Far from it: this is a story of glory and the impermanence of fame Sunday Times (Book of the Week)Like Alf Ramseys 1966 team, this book has depth, it has riches and its a winner - the finest piece of sports writing I have read in ages and a superb piece of contemporary history Peter HennessyEngland. 1966. The World Cup.Duncan Hamilton watched England beat West Germany as an eight-year-old boy in the company of his father and grandfather. He recalls Wembley, spread out in the sun; the waving flags; the delirious, joy-of-all-joys moment of the final whistle; the trophy sparkling in the late afternoon light.But, seeing the whole game again during the misery of the first Covid lockdown, finally made him realise what Alf Ramsey and his players had no inkling of, which was what came next for them. How, for many of those boys of summer, almost everything after that shimmering moment amounted to an anti-climax or a setback. How 66 was not a beginning, a guaranteed path towards more success, but a slow decline and fall, and also a disproportionate number of disappointments. And how the triumph of 66 was dulled through constant repetition, the same images always flashed before us.Hamilton recognised, too, how many myths and misconceptions had grown around the match.He decided to revisit 66, tracing the very roots of a story - as well as the hidden figures within it - that really began during the era of post-War austerity. Answered Prayers provides, at last, a full account of English footballs greatest achievement and the failures that followed it. We see the institutional inability to appreciate Ramsey and his players, who were taken for granted; the political machinations of the blazered fools who ran the Football Association; the short-sighted blunderers of the Football League. With his matchless insight and descriptive power, Hamilton tells history afresh and shows us, for the first time, the scale of what was won and what was lost.PRAISE FOR DUNCAN HAMILTONHamilton has a perceptively humane understanding of men for whom football was never just a game GuardianA marriage of prose and detail so fine and fastidious that it takes the breath away IndependentJustifiably prize-winning Mail on Sunday Author Biography Duncan Hamilton has won three William Hill Sports Book of the Year Prizes. He has been nominated on a further four occasions. He has also claimed two British Sports Book Awards and is the first writer to have won the Wisden Cricket Book of the Year on three occasions. His biography of the Chariots of Fire runner Eric Liddell, For the Glory, was a New York Times bestseller. He most recently collaborated with Jonny Bairstow on the cricketers autobiography, A Clear Blue Sky. He lives at the foot of the Yorkshire Dales. Review Terrific. As good on post-war Britain as Peter Hennessy. Informed and heart-breaking. -- Stephen FrearsAn expert observer of different forms of Englishness, he treats sportspeople as three-dimensional humans. * Financial Times *Absorbing. Like all the best football books, Answered Prayers is not just about football; its about hope and despair, friendship and enmity, and the character it takes to handle them. * Guardian (Book of the Week) *Magnificent, moving, often funny and deeply researched account . . . Is this just a book for those who know football? Far from it: this is a story of glory and the impermanence of fame. * Sunday Times (Book of the Week) *Like Alf Ramseys 1966 team, this book has depth, it has riches and its a winner - the finest piece of sports writing I have read in ages and a superb piece of contemporary history. Duncan Hamiltons great gift is the blending of character, mood and moment. Even Ramsey might have showed a spasm of emotion were he here to read it. -- Peter HennessyThis may well be one of the best books ever written about football. * Choice Magazine *Brilliant...Hamilton, arguably Britains greatest sportswriter, tells [Ramseys] tale with his wonderful panache. He is the master of the vivid phrase... Dry humour is never far from the surface in this books pages. * Daily Express *Hamilton has a gift for treating sportspeople as humans * Financial Times (Book of the Year) *A highly poignant, history of Englands World Cup victory in 1966. * Daily Express (Book of the Year) *The finest sports book of the year by one of the countrys most garlanded sports writers. * Daily Mail *Who would have thought a new book about a sporting event of the distant past would be as enlightening and relevant as Hamiltons Answered Prayers. * Sports Journalists Association * Details ISBN1529420016 Author Duncan Hamilton Publisher Quercus Publishing Year 2024 ISBN-13 9781529420012 Format Paperback Publication Date 2024-06-06 Imprint riverrun Subtitle England and the 1966 World Cup Place of Publication London Country of Publication United Kingdom DEWEY 796.334668094209046 Audience General UK Release Date 2024-06-06 Pages 480 ISBN-10 1529420016 NZ Release Date 2024-10-07 AU Release Date 2024-10-07 We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:160357974;

Price: 34.47 AUD

Location: Melbourne

End Time: 2025-02-04T14:01:14.000Z

Shipping Cost: 0 AUD