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Review
'For anyone who loves football, this book cannot be ignored'
(The Times )'A glorious example of the genre, a class apart not least because of being penned by award-winning newspaper columnist James Lawton, a veritable master of his craft. The prologue alone is almost worth the money, the first page a peerless example of how to get to the heart - the tragic heart in this case - of the matter'
(Daily Mail )'It's a fantastic book. I couldn't put it down. Bobby Charlton is a great man and he has told a great story'
(Sir Alex Ferguson )'Sir Bobby's autobiography begins with an indescribably moving chapter about the blackest day of English sport: February 6, 1958. They are the most powerful pages ever written in a football book'
(Sunday Express )Product Description
Bobby Charlton is Manchester United through and through. He was a member of the original Busby Babes and has devoted his career to the club, playing in 754 games over 17 years. During that period he won everything the game had to offer, played alongside some of the greats such as Best and Law, suffered devastating defeats and was involved in one of the greatest football tragedies of all time. Here, for the very first time, he tells the story of those United years. With his beloved Reds he tasted FA Cup victory in the emotional final of 1963, won three first division championships and in 1968 he reached the pinnacle of club success, winning the European Cup. Inevitably, such highs are balanced with no less dramatic lows, such as the 1957 European Cup semi-final, the highly charged 1958 FA Cup loss which followed only weeks after the horrors of the Munich Air disaster, and the 1969 European Cup defeat by Milan. He is one of the true gentlemen of football and the legacy that Bobby Charlton gives to United is beyond compare.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A masterful achievement,
By
This review is from: My Manchester United Years (Hardcover)
Not since Arthur Hopcraft produced the sublime 'The Football Man' in 1968 has a book on sport moved me so profoundly. When it was announced that a Bobby Charlton autobiography was imminent, I feared that it would fail to do justice to arguably the most compelling sporting figure of my lifetime. In the event, it is a majestic work, capturing perfectly, and often poignantly, the essence of the man and his times. Footballing matters are dealt with faithfully and comprehensively, but perhaps the tale is at its most arresting when addressing human relationships. There are numerous delightful vignettes which offer evocative insights into household names and he confronts family issues with candour. Charlton emerges not only as a great sportsman, but also as a sensitive, intelligent, appealingly wistful soul. Quite simply, I love the book.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Classy, dignified and frank,
By
This review is from: My Manchester United Years (Hardcover)
Ever since I was nine years old when I saw him score the two goals that helped Manchester United win the European Cup in 1968 Bobby Charlton has been my hero. He didn't have the dazzling ball skills of George Best and lets face it, with his prematurely bald head he looked more like a teacher that a footballer, but instead he simply exuded class and a certain dignity that no other footballer seemed to possess. I was very pleased to find then that his autobiography is exactly the same - classy, dignified but also very frank and honest.
Not surprisingly it contains absolutely no scandal but instead it is full of stories that offer telling insights into not just Bobby Charlton but also Manchester United, football and life in general in the fifties, sixties and seventies. One of the chapters, in which he writes about the days when as a boy he used to go to watch Sunderland or Newcastle United with his older brother Jack is particularly excellent. His description of how they used to stand in a particular part of the ground so they can watch the skills of a famous player close at hand is very evocative. Also excellent is the bitingly frank chapter in which he tells of the breakdown of his relationship with his mother following her rejection of his wife, Norma. As you would expect though, it is the Munich airplane disaster that dominates this book, just as it as dominated Bobby Charltons life since that day. The events of that day are described wonderfully well, as are Bobbys feelings of bewilderment and guilt that he should survive the crash barely harmed whilst his beloved team mates and friends had perished. An excellent book then, and I look forward greatly to the next of the proposed volumes, where I presume he will move onto his playing for England and the World Cup win in 1966.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A life of witness,
This review is from: My Manchester United Years (Hardcover)
The boring tag attached by so many to Bobby Charlton has always frustrated me. Here was a man who played football with attacking Brazilian flair and never intentionally made a tackle in his life. A man with a thunderbolt of a shot who made the commentators voice rise when uttering his name. It was notable, if not remarkable in these commercial days, that he had never before published an autobiography.
Looming large of course over everything was the Munich air disaster. One couldn't help feeling that his rather dour, pre-occupied demeanour had emerged from that tragedy. It seems it was so. Here there are glimpses of the pre-Munich Charlton enjoying the company of his closest friends David Pegg, Eddie Colman and Tommy Taylor and his upward gaze to his hero Duncan Edwards. The world is truly at their feet. And then there is the crash. The heart is ripped out of the team but also the football heart to some degree silently seems to depart Bobby Charlton as well. He explains how he just can't understand how or why he survived, so unscathed, and his friends did not. It is something that will trouble him for a lifetime. The remainder of his life certainly however seems to have been driven by the need to bear witness to what was lost. Just one among many geniuses, Charlton bears testimony to the greatness of the others. "Here I am", he says, "see what I achieved and yet I was only ordinary among the Busby Babes." Of course Bobby Charlton won the elusive European Cup with Busby at the helm, he won the World Cup with England and he played sublime football as one of the big three of Best, Charlton and Law. He deals in this book most passionately with Munich and with his family dispute with brother Jack and their mother - here one feels he is speaking from raw emotion. He does that less so with the rather club-justifying position on Beckham's departure and the sale of the club. However, there is a lot more here than in most football autobiographies and less platitudes, albeit with some skimming over of key events (for example, the battle for the commercial ownership of United, the controversy over the Munich survivors fund). He is clearly anxious for the record to show that his contribution to the Alex Ferguson reign is recognised too. One feels Sir Bobby Charlton has worked out his self-imposed penance for surviving Munich by being the best he could possibly be, both for his beloved club and country. I only hope that in addition to his sense of duty he manages to draw some joy from the pleasure he gave to millions of us as an Englishman playing football the Brazilian way.
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