Promised Land
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Review
"A love song to the North, and all the contradictions and little irritations about the region that make us love it more"
--Yorkshire Post
'Promised Land' distinguishes itself from your average football book with a framing device evoking the Exodus. This enables Clavane to elegantly and evocatively explore his own Jewishness and the influence of the Israeli diaspora on his beloved football team as well as offering a potted history of the temper and temperament of the city itself ... Clavane's vision is far from gloomy - Leeds has a knack for self-sabotage but it's eminently capable of reinvention too' --Timeout
`This "Northern love story" has as the objects of desire both the city of Leeds and its football club. Pretty often, neither attracts much affection beyond the West Riding--but Clavane digs deep and looks hard in order to explain the forces that shaped both town and team.' --i
`Promised Land is both an anatomy of the peculiar mass psychology of Leeds United's support (shaped by the team's multiple failures in big games) and a paean to Clavane's home town, which once nurtured a thriving Jewish subculture.' --New Statesman
`a hard-edged and searingly-honest insight into why we all bother investing so much in 11 men every weekend.' --Loaded
--Yorkshire Post
'Promised Land' distinguishes itself from your average football book with a framing device evoking the Exodus. This enables Clavane to elegantly and evocatively explore his own Jewishness and the influence of the Israeli diaspora on his beloved football team as well as offering a potted history of the temper and temperament of the city itself ... Clavane's vision is far from gloomy - Leeds has a knack for self-sabotage but it's eminently capable of reinvention too' --Timeout
`This "Northern love story" has as the objects of desire both the city of Leeds and its football club. Pretty often, neither attracts much affection beyond the West Riding--but Clavane digs deep and looks hard in order to explain the forces that shaped both town and team.' --i
`Promised Land is both an anatomy of the peculiar mass psychology of Leeds United's support (shaped by the team's multiple failures in big games) and a paean to Clavane's home town, which once nurtured a thriving Jewish subculture.' --New Statesman
`a hard-edged and searingly-honest insight into why we all bother investing so much in 11 men every weekend.' --Loaded
Book Description
Anthony's love letter to football, to his own club, Leeds, and the city that made it, was unviersally acclaimed in hardback and prize-nominated.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is stunning: more than a piece of sports journalism, it is an intense psychological examination of a city with a turbulent life story, an enduring image (not always complimentary) to outsiders, and a fierce and passionate character which burns to this day.
Taking as his central motif the sign which was once on display high and proud at Leeds train station declaring 'Leeds - The Promised Land Delivered', Clavane examines that very character, telling an epic saga which weaves together the story of the football club, of the city, and of the Jewish community in which he himself grew up.
His reflections are searingly honest. Famous vignettes from the seminal New Wave film 'Billy Liar' (originally written by Leeds-born Keith Waterhouse) are recurring scene-setters, which Clavane builds upon to charactise the city as an historically ambitious place where idealistic dreamers have come to achieve: Hull-born architect Cuthbert Brodrick who built the majestic Town Hall; and of course Don Revie, the man who took over as Leeds United manager in the sixties, ordering his team to play in an all-white strip like that of world-class Real Madrid.
Yet that ambition, that apparent self-confidence Clavane suggests betrays a rather more deep-seated insecurity about ourselves: that no matter what pretentions we might ever adopt towards worldwide greatness, we will never lose our abiding provincial roots.
A book which gives every Leeds lad or lady a great deal to think about. It is at once a nostalgic tread through footballing history; a treatise on sport and culture; and a fascinating treasure chest of stories - mostly now forgotten and little-told - about a city and a football club which continues to have its "ups and downs".
Taking as his central motif the sign which was once on display high and proud at Leeds train station declaring 'Leeds - The Promised Land Delivered', Clavane examines that very character, telling an epic saga which weaves together the story of the football club, of the city, and of the Jewish community in which he himself grew up.
His reflections are searingly honest. Famous vignettes from the seminal New Wave film 'Billy Liar' (originally written by Leeds-born Keith Waterhouse) are recurring scene-setters, which Clavane builds upon to charactise the city as an historically ambitious place where idealistic dreamers have come to achieve: Hull-born architect Cuthbert Brodrick who built the majestic Town Hall; and of course Don Revie, the man who took over as Leeds United manager in the sixties, ordering his team to play in an all-white strip like that of world-class Real Madrid.
Yet that ambition, that apparent self-confidence Clavane suggests betrays a rather more deep-seated insecurity about ourselves: that no matter what pretentions we might ever adopt towards worldwide greatness, we will never lose our abiding provincial roots.
A book which gives every Leeds lad or lady a great deal to think about. It is at once a nostalgic tread through footballing history; a treatise on sport and culture; and a fascinating treasure chest of stories - mostly now forgotten and little-told - about a city and a football club which continues to have its "ups and downs".
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Wherein the author examines his 'Leedsish-ness' compares it with his Jewish background in a somewhat contrived, but-we'll go with it- manner and doesn't convincingly pull off what he set out to do. I agree with the comment from the previous reviewer about this being an Award winner being a damning comment on the strength of the competition.
I'm a Leeds fan but whilst I thoroughly enjoyed Nick Hornby's ground breaking effort, this isn't a patch on Fever Pitch in terms of the writing quality, the humour, affection or the way it made me feel at the end of it - there's no affirmation of faith. It's a decent idea which is executed moderately well but with some large gaps - the ECWC Final in Salonika is overlooked completely. I found it a patchy read and won't revisit it.
Of interest, not a bad read but certainly not essential.
I'm a Leeds fan but whilst I thoroughly enjoyed Nick Hornby's ground breaking effort, this isn't a patch on Fever Pitch in terms of the writing quality, the humour, affection or the way it made me feel at the end of it - there's no affirmation of faith. It's a decent idea which is executed moderately well but with some large gaps - the ECWC Final in Salonika is overlooked completely. I found it a patchy read and won't revisit it.
Of interest, not a bad read but certainly not essential.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this book thinking it would contain more social history than football. However, it was all Leeds Utd. Not that I minded as I am from Leeds and can remember the 1970 team but it is an out and out book on football.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Promised land reached...
As a lifelong Leeds Utd. fan (God help me!!),I was very impressed with this book which shows the connections between Leeds Utd. Read more
Published 5 months ago by John Anderson
Perceptive, and not just about football....
The Promised Land both challenged some of my assumptions about and confirmed some of my impressions of Leeds - my adopted home city of the last twenty years. Read more
Published 7 months ago by D. Horton
Tough Love for Leeds
Clavane's love for Leeds, his tough love, is always there. Sure, it's not just about football, or football in context: the book is about tribes from the point of view of an active... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Richard Wilcocks
Like Leeds is to Arsenal, so this is to Fever Pitch
I should warn you now, this is no ordinary sports book. It's a sports book of the year, no less.
That makes me think two things simultaneously: firstly, I worry about... Read more
That makes me think two things simultaneously: firstly, I worry about... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Simon Hall
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