Book description
This is the full story, unofficial and uncensored, of one of the
greatest football clubs in the country. From its birth in the 1890s to
its rebirth in the 1990s and up to season 2003-4, The Toon tells of a
small soccer club, long in the shadow of an enormous rival, which grew
to eclipse that rival - and every other club in Great Britain. Roger
Hutchinson brings to life the sensational early successes of Newcastle
United, recreating the great Anglo-Scottish team which dominated the
Football League before the First World War. He vividly describes the
helter-skelter attacking sides of the 1930s and the Cup giants of the
1950s, and gives us the European conquerors of the 1960s and the squads
of the 1970s and '80s, before showing us how today's cosmopolitan side
of title-chasing internationals was built. This lively, hard-hitting
book portrays the brilliant management of such legends as Frank Watt and
takes us down through the thrilling decades right up to the reign of Sir
Bobby Robson. In its pages we see the educated play of Andy Aitken and
Colin Veitch; we watch as the fast and furious centre-forward play of
Jock Peddie paves the way for the era of the great Hughie Gallacher and
the unique Jackie Milburn. It assesses the merits of all of their heirs,
from Keegan to Beardsley, from Macdonald to Shearer, from Moncur to
Dyer. Exploring and explaining the lean years as well as the successful
decades, The Toon exposes the bad managers, incompetent directors and
players who were unworthy of the black and white stripes. It takes an
unflinching look at the lost opportunities and the Geordie footballers
who went missing. But it also offers us the geniuses, the household
names, the men who have lit up Tyneside and the world beyond in a
hundred-year sequence of unforgettable League and Cup campaigns. Most of
all, The Toon looks from the past towards a glorious future. Roger
Hutchinson is an award-winning author and journalist. After spending his
early career in London editing magazines, he moved in 1977 to work in
Skye, where he still lives. His previous books include High Sixties: The
Summers of Riot and Love, All the Sweets of Being: A Life of James
Boswell and Empire Games: The British Invention of Twentieth-Century
Sport.
