- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Parrs Wood Press (Sep 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1903158230
- ISBN-13: 978-1903158234
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 74,347 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Synopsis
Rochdale FC are England's worst performing professional football club. They have spent the last 27 seasons in the basement division - a longer spell than any other club. Mark Hodkinson has supported Rochdale FC throughout this period. As a boy, he lived in the town, and the club has formed a touchstone of his life since he first saw them play on a cold, misty night in 1974. He has missed just a handful of home matches since then. At the start of the 2000/2001 season he was commissioned by The Times to write a weekly bulletin from Spotland. Over the course of the season, these articles provided a compelling insight into the fanaticism engendered for the country's lower league sides. As one of Britain's most respected sports writers, Hodkinson - through these humorous, informed, and passionate pieces - was able to turn his hand to the subject closest to his heart, Rochdale FC. He had undertaken similar commissions at Barnsley and Manchester City and these were also compiled as books, Life at the Top and Blue Moon, which are widely regarded as football classics. Blue Moon was Sportspages' best-selling book of 1999 and has already been reprinted several times. Life Sentence developed cult status as Hodkinson's wry prose touched a chord with fellow supporters, especially during an era when many felt the sport had lost its soul to rampant commercialism. He writes of hope and heartache; anguish and agony; pie and peas on a tray with gravy, please. He also interweaves the life of his football club with the life of his family - a father who is similarly addicted to Rochdale FC and two young sons whom he is hesitant to introduce to the pleasure and pain of Spotland. The columns are included here, with an additional 40,000 words of comment, insight and afterthought. Life Sentence is a benchmark work by which other books about football support will be measured.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
I'm an ardent Sheffield Wednesday supporter, but after reading this book, I'll be keeping an eye on Rochdale's results with keen interest. I'd read Mark Hodkinson's book on Barnsley and rated it as insightful and intriguing, but because Hodkinson is a lifelong Rochdale fan, this offering is even better and I'd challenge any reader not to develop a softspot for the club after reading it. Rochdale's perennial lack of success makes for a poignant read, and I can empathise with Mark's emotions at every turn. I've read most of the football books published over the past ten years, but cannot recall a better one than this, and my one minor criticism would be that the letters from fellow Rochdale fans that he publishes would have been better interspersed throughout the text rather than being included en bloc. Still, if you have any kind of interest in football, you must get hold of this book.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
'Life Sentence' is ostensibly about one man's "low-level love affair" with Rochdale FC - the country's most unsuccessful football club.
The book follows the 2000/2001 season which saw Rochdale flirt with automatic promotion, self-destruct, pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and finally miss out on a play-off place on the last day of the season.
There's more to it than that, however - it's not just for Rochdale fans (I am not a fan of 'The Dale' myself - although I must say that this book has given me a certain soft spot for them). Any football fan can relate to the highs and lows described in the pages of 'Life Sentence', especially those fans of the less financially-fortunate, lower division clubs.
In fact, the book will also appeal to readers who are not specifically football fans, for he writes of 'hope and heartache, anguish and agony'. He is describing not only what it means to be a Rochdale fan, not only what it means to have an obsession, but what it means to be human.
Mark Hodkinson's contemplations are endearing, thought-provoking, amusing. And considering the 'plot' of the book, there is a dramatic irony in some of the author's more hopeful passages of near-Shakespearean tragedy proportions!
It's a pretty gripping read too - I was as addicted to this book as the author is to Rochdale!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Since Fever Pitch there have been numerous books detailing a football season from the fan's perspective, but none are probably quite as acutely observed as this
the author is a journalist in "real life" and these columns had appeared in the Times, so the writing is good and very much to the point making for a breezy read
Many of the neat assumptions of the football armchair audience are neatly turned on their head (familys at football and "second teams" being examples) and there are many excellent anecdotes which vary from the funny to the quite strange
A fine read
the author is a journalist in "real life" and these columns had appeared in the Times, so the writing is good and very much to the point making for a breezy read
Many of the neat assumptions of the football armchair audience are neatly turned on their head (familys at football and "second teams" being examples) and there are many excellent anecdotes which vary from the funny to the quite strange
A fine read
Most Recent Customer Reviews
B-o-o-o-ring...........
This is a book recommended to me as a supporter of a 'small' football club - Brentford. It's about another supporter's season following an even smaller club - Rochdale. Read more
Published on 19 May 2010 by L. Signy
Total Football
This book is absolutely fantastic!
It is a heartfelt account of a football supporter basking in the 'glory' of supporting his local team rather than another tired... Read more
It is a heartfelt account of a football supporter basking in the 'glory' of supporting his local team rather than another tired... Read more
Published on 1 Mar 2009 by Keeping it Real since 1977
Cracking read
What a great book - funny and sad by turn - definitely the best football book I have read
Published on 13 Aug 2002
A must for all true football supporters.
What an absolutely fantastic read! A real football supporter writing about the club he loves with wit, passion and honesty. Read more
Published on 8 April 2002
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