Charles Buchan

An enlightening historical commentary on Britain and British football in the first half of the twentieth century, this engrossing autobiography, originally published in the 1950s, is sure to inform a new generation of football supporters about a character once synonymous with the game in its more boisterous, yet more innocent, days. Born in London in 1891, Buchan enjoyed a successful playing career with Sunderland before enlisting as a soldier in the First World War, during which he saw action both at the front and on the pitch. War over, he picked up his playing career with Sunderland before being capped by his country and transferring to Arsenal. Gradually he moved into journalism, writing the first football coaching manual and reporting on the sport for the BBC. Then, in 1951, Charles Buchan's Football Monthly was set up, reaching sales of more than 100,000 at its peak. Buchan's life was tragically cut short in 1960 when he died of a massive heart attack, but in this book he left a legacy of football history, setting the matches he played in and covered in a context that makes them both vivid and memorable. A treasure.