The Half Decent Football Book

At least half
decent writing

Today sees the publication of When Saturday Comes' Half Decent Football Book, a reference volume with a difference - that is, it's not just informative, but witty and entertaining too. Being listed as one of the book's "principal contributors", I'm naturally a little biased, but I've just received my complementary copy and can unreservedly confirm that it's the best UK football reference book ever published. Really.

Czech Bloke Rates My Book

Now 'critically acclaimed' 
in Prague

Unknown writers unfailingly peruse those end-of-year lists in the broadsheets and sigh despairingly as well-known authors big up each others' books. Then, looking for scraps of recognition from any quarter, they self-google, although admitting this pathetic search for flattery is as taboo in writers' circles (wherever they are) as a house-dad confessing to the mothers at a Boy Scout bake sale that he can't purge his hard drive of a stubbornly irremoveable cookie from hotchix.com.

How else, though, would I have discovered that 'Ve Stinu Tribuny', the highly ignored Czech translation of my book 'For Whom The Ball Rolls', would have been listed by a critic at the newspaper Lidovky as the third of his top three favourite books of 2004? Wahaaay! Right there behind Yann Martel and Jonathan Coe, who are names. Not names I've ever personally read, but I've certainly heard of them. And Milan Kundera doesn't even get a look in. At least not on that list.


"Velmi vtipné povídky nejen o fotbale, nad kterými by zřejmě i pan Habásko zaslzel, o Pavlu Kukovi nemluvě," writes Mr. Czech Critic. I haven't a clue what he's saying (maybe I've got it completely wrong and it's a list of peoples' crappest books of 2004), but I think he might be making a reference to Pavel Kuka, the Czech striker who used to play for Kaiserslautern and Nurenberg. Let's hope my UK publisher is already planning a new edition with a sticker on the front saying 'Czech bloke's 3rd. favourite book of 2004!'