Book description
There have been football books which have told their tale through the
partisan heart of a besotted fan, and those that have dissected their
subject through the scientific mind of an objective writer. But rarely
does one fuse the blind passion of a lifelong supporter with the cold
eye of an award-winning journalist in the way
43 Years With The Same Bird
does.
That bird is the Liver Bird, and on the surface this book is a
pitch-side view of the entire modern era of Britain's most successful
football club. It is Brian Reade's take on the extraordinary stories
behind the 48 trophies he has seen Liverpool lift since watching them en
route to their first ever FA Cup win in 1965, right through to the
Champions League defeat in Athens in 2007. It takes in all of the big
nights that propelled the club to five European Cups, three UEFA Cups,
twelve titles, countless domestic cup triumphs, bitter failures, the
tragic disasters in Sheffield and Brussels, as well as the barren years
of the late 60s and the 90s.
But the book goes far deeper than that. It's about how football allowed
a father who was separated from his son to forge a precious bond. How a
football club can make a city that is dying on its knees keep believing
in itself. How you should never, as a professional, get too close to
your heroes. How being part of a disaster at a football match
(Hillsborough) can leave you a mental wreck, unwilling to carry on, but
how witnessing a miracle on a football pitch (Istanbul) makes you
realise that no matter how low you sink, you should never give in.
Brian Reade is an award-winning journalist who has two columns, one of
them about sport, in the Mirror
. In 2000 he was named Columnist of The Year at The British Press
Gazette Awards, and in 2003 was named Sports Columnist of The Year in
the Sports Journalism Awards.
