Book description
A moving story of how a legendary football team was lost to tragedy -
and how this disaster irrevocably altered the lives of the survivors and
the bereaved families, and ultimately brought shame on the biggest
football club in the world.
The Manchester United team Matt Busby had built in the fifties from the
club's successful youth policy seemed destined to dominate football for
many years. Such was the power of the 'Busby Babes' that they seemed
invincible. The average age of the side which won the Championship in
1955-56 was just 22, the youngest ever to achieve such a feat. A year
later, when they were Champions again, nothing, it seemed, would prevent
this gifted young team from reigning for the next decade.
But then came 6 February 1958, the day that eight Manchester United
players died on a German airfield in the 'Munich Air Disaster' - a date
to be forever etched in the annals of sporting tragedy.
Duncan Edwards, Eddie Colman, Tommy Taylor, Roger Byrne…the names were
already enshrined in legend before the air crash, but Munich in many
ways earned them immortality. They have never grown old.
Jeff Connor traces the rise of the greatest Manchester United side of
all time, alongside a vibrant portrait of England in the 1950s, but he
also paints a dark picture of a club that enriched itself on the myth of
Munich while neglecting the families of the dead and the surviving
players. The repercussions and the toll the disaster took on so many
linger to the present day.
Drawing on extensive interviews with the Munich victims and players of
that era, The Lost Babes is the definitive account of British football's
golden age, a poignant story of the protracted effects of loss and a
remorseless dissection of the how the richest football club in the world
turned its back on its own players and their families. 'A thorough,
and thoroughly moving, piece of work' Daily Telegraph
'Highly recommended' When Saturday Comes
'Covering a lot of ground, this splendid book provides a fascinating
insight into many of those affected by the tragedy' Winger
'Jeff Connor has written a deeply moving account of what
happened…Connor's well-researched account is a powerful, enthralling and
poignant addition to the growing literature on British soccer.' BBC
History Magazine
'A fascinating memoir' The Times Jeff Connor is a sports
correspondent for the Mail on Sunday. He is the author of eleven books,
including an entertaining account of the Tour De France, 'Wide-Eyed and
Legless', 'Up Down and Under', a diary of the 2001 Lions Rugby Tour to
Australia, and 'Pointless, A Season with Britain's Worst Football Team'.
