Chapter 1
Before Fever Pitch
A true history of football fiction
Nick Hornby once said he never wanted to read a football novel. He couldnât believe in a fictional team like Melchester Rovers or their players; for him, there is enough drama in the real thing (2006). Revered Mexican author Juan Villoro (2016) highlighted what little room he thinks is left to the fiction author when the game, with all of its comedy, tragedy and epic plotlines, has so much already (in Wood 2017, 217). Listening to football on the radio led Turkish author Orhan Pamuk to describe the game as being faster than words (Speigel 2008, para. 9). He noted the ekphratic impact, the slight delay arising in descriptions of action observed, a tense interlude between events playing out on the pitch and their conveyance by the commentator. Irrespective of the broadcasterâs ability to transport the listener, the spoken word simply cannot keep pace with the ball.
Drama, plotlines and tension. Rather than see them as obstacles, writers have sought to capitalise on these qualities, to use them to underpin the sportâs natural, possibly romantic, propensity to be put into words. Throughout its history, the football novel has been exploiting Pamukâs delay, creating space for the readerâs imagination between open play and its capture on record.
This chapter tells the story of footballâs fiction in the 20th century. It begins with those first novels to exploit the interlude, to convey lessons, celebrate the sport, make use of it as a vehicle for narrative. The development of crime-related football fiction is highlighted, as are prolific authors, the emergence of literary football novels and a brief and important spell of womenâs football fiction. The chapter and the story bring us to one of the fieldâs most important works: Nick Hornbyâs Fever Pitch (1992). The dramatised memoir of a football fanâs fixation played into the economic, political and cultural elevation of the English Premier League. Its unprecedented success prompted acclaimed sportswriter Marcela Araujo to carve football writing into two categories: everything before Fever Pitch and everything after (in Braunias 2001, para. 19). Her demarcation guides this bookâs two opening chapters, which construct a linear narrative across the span of football fictionâs longevity.
As the first uneven half, this chapter consolidates an extensive primary research, the authorâs previous work in the field (McGowan 2017) and the texts, surveys, journal articles and analyses by academics (Wood 2017; Stead 2013; Cox et al. 2002; and Melling 1998), writers (Taylor 2017, 1997) and fastidious historians (Seddon 1999).
Origins
The first football stories appeared in short novels, comics and periodicals in late 19th century, which suggests the genre originated in the late 1870s. They were written with speed, in volume, and most often featured or took place within the environs of an exclusive public school (Cox et al. 2002, 200; Taylor 1997, 84). Their portrayal of the game, codified by middle and upper classes, was aimed at working- and lower-middle-class readers who wanted to see the game they enjoyed on the page (Taylor 2017, para. 5). These early novels, informed and influenced by the plot and story construction typical of schoolboy stories in comics and journals, established narrative structures, situations and patterns that would be employed across football fiction for decades afterwards. These drew on archetypes from the game itself, including underestimation of a player as a result of their appearance, the presence of midfield meastro, a natural but reluctant team leader and an against-the-odds-last-minute-cup-fi nal winner. Moral lessons on the importance of participation were obligatory.
Victorian boysâ journals and magazines, such as The Boyâs Own Paper (1879â 1967), featured pictures, short stories and comic strips on a range of subjects and sports, including football. 1 Many similarly formatted comic books followed the success, style and format. Chums (1892â1934), The Boysâ Realm of Adventure and Sport (1902â1927) and Adventure (1921â1961) frequently published stories featuring football characters. These stories included Fred Reckless: Amateur, The Team that Shook Division 2 and Podge Parks, which was about an 18-stone goal-keeper. Comics are noted across the genreâs history to highlight the continuation of the original form. They signal significant change and, because they set of a range of stereotypes for football fictionâs cast of characters, their limited variants and the range of possible outcomes.
The earliest example of novel-length football fiction discovered to date is: The Boys of Highfield: or, the Hero of Chancery House (1878) by H. Frederick Charles, republished in 1908 and in 1917. 2 The next discovered in the course of this study is Bright Sunset â the Last Days of a Young Scottish Football Player (Riddell 1884), an overtly religious morality tale of a schoolboy who, having suffered a football injury, bravely faced his resultant slow and early death (Mitchell 2015, para. 4). The book proved to be very popular (12 editions published), possibly due to William Riddell, the storyâs protagonist, being a real person. His fictionalised story is presented as an epistolary between a sister in Canada, and his mother, who in a possible nod toward credible verisimilitude, is credited with co-authorship. Apart from the knee being badly hurt during the game and the cover drawing depicting the sport itself, there is little football in the book, except where it underlines the apparent dangers in the gameâs pursuit. Both texts were published by the Religious Tract Society in London with a clear moralising purpose. Other early examples include: Football in Coketown: or, Who Shall Be Captain? (Burrage 1893), with its central conflict contained in the title; Desmond Cokeâs The School Across the Road (1910), which focuses on the school teamâs seasonal plight; and Blair, the Half Back Ranger (1910), a maudlin tale of a football-loving boy who dies young while finding salvation in religion. Achieving success, and leaning on the traits of early football fiction, A Motherâs Son (Fry 1907), a sports memoir disguised as novel, includes football at several points in its narrative. 3 These books characterise football fictionâs early development; they contain what is best described as limited football content, make appropriate use of the gameâs vernacular and use the sport to convey or further conflict and its resolution and motivate character interaction.
Due to Arnold Bennettâs standing as a writer and his normalisation of football as a populist activity, Peter Stead (2013) is among those who suggest the origins of footballâs literature begin with The Card (Bennett 1910). The story features a mayoral candidateâs bid to win the vote of the patronage of his local football club â he sees and wants to exploit the clubâs sizable community. The novel offers wit and discerning commentary on links drawn between politics and sport. Detailing a match between local rivals Knype and Bursley, 4 it manages to capture the lives of what we now know to be the forerunners of football as a profession. Echoing the Preston North End story, Bennetâs professionals are mostly Scots players. Bennettâs astute observational fiction also drew on football in a number of short stories in his collection The Matador of Five Towns (1912). These including the title story, which features the same local teams noted in The Card and a very good Manchester Rovers side. In the same collection, Three Episodes in the Life of Mr Colinshaw, Dentist, features a match between Hanbridge F.C. (formed from the remains of the recently bankrupt Knype) and Tottenham Hotspur, a fictionalised version of the real team. Bennett was not the only writer during the era to use football or a real team for reference.
Two pieces of fiction, as well as high regard in literary circles, see PG Wode-house appear in a number of surveys of the field (Taylor 2017, 1997; Stead 2013; Seddon 1999). D.J. Taylor asserts that it is likely that the real gameâs growing popularity and potential sales may have prompted Wodehouse to opportunistically insert football into Mike and Psmith (1910), (Taylor 2017, para. 3). Originally published simply as Mike in 1909, the narrative follows its bank clerk protagonists Psmith and Mike Jackson who fake a passion for Manchester United to improve their fortunes with their boss (Taylor 2017, para. 3). Prior to the novel, Wodehouse published Petticoat Influence (1906), a short story featuring a young woman who has her brother clarify the differences between association football and rugby while he wins his Oxford Blue for the former. As well as shrewd insight on Wodehouse, Stead offers engaging argument for the inclusion of the D.H. Lawrence short story Strike Pay (1934, c1913). 5 A match between rivals Notts County and Aston Villa â two teams still operating today â involves a colleague of the storyâs main characters enabling the incorporation of the game into its charactersâ working day (Stead 2013, 241).
The two novels and four short stories from Bennett, Wodehouse and Lawrence, prominent members of the literary establishment, draw on football to establish setting, drive conflict and develop character. They highlight footballâs early appearances in literary fiction and counterpoint the short-range stories captured in comics published across the period. The books featured in the next stage of the genreâs development reflect a pivotal shift in the game. Celebrations of the gentile amateur nature of football in exclusive private schools (Cox et al. 2002, 201) gave way to more realistic depictions as an increasingly profession-alised game took on its increasingly prominent position on the British cultural landscape.
The 1920s and 1930s: women female footballers and the genreâs first prolific author
Abundant and popular football fiction in inexpensive pulp fiction and serials marked the peak of 1920s football fiction. The decade is one of the genreâs most vibrant. Before they were shut down, female footballers made the most of the limelight; Sydney Horler contributed as many as 20 entries to the field, and football got mixed up with crime. First though, we must note the continuation of schoolboy football stories and the lessons they would learn from the game.
There was no diminishment in the employment of football as a vehicle for the inculcation of lessons on team spirit and class (Taylor 1997, 90). Strickland in R.A.H. Goodyearâs Strickland of the Sixth (1922) led his teammates on a mission to teach a rough group of mercenary apprentices a few lessons in football and civility. Fair to middling expectations were sufficient for Jock McPhersonâs Stick It Ginger! (1922), a shallow, rags-to-riches bildungsroman about a romanticised football hero. Herbert Hayensâ Play Up Kings! (1930) is a fish-out-of-water take on football as a great leveller reinforces the unparalleled civility of the upper-class boysâ team. Despite their interwar publication, these stories lost little of the innocence lamented by Philip Larkin in MCMXIV. 6
Between them, the 88-novel series the Aldine Football Library (Oldham 1925â1931), aimed predominantly at young male readers, and the 566-volume Amalgamated Press series The Football and Sports Library, aimed at older readers, produced hundreds of formulaic football novels. Conservative advocates for clean living and non-radical support of the patriarchy, the series hosted a plethora of formulaic football hero and heroic team stories. Clubs on the brink of liquidation would win against surmountable odds. Down-and-out coaches made the most of second chances. Star strikers, unearthed or revived from the unlikeliest of places, would score last-minute cup-fi nal winners. Their heroes were courageous, honourable and athletic (Huggins and Williams 2005, 29). Plotlines were repetitive; the good, the honest, the hard-working and moral would always prevail (Seddon 1999, 486). The central ingredients holding these elements together were consistent, too: winning football, comically villainous antagonists, and some self-serving over-zealous nationalism. The texts borrowed character types, conventions and narrative formulae from the schoolboy story format and tended to emphasise amate...
