Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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Pity it does not stick to the subject, 18 Feb 2008
This book has some really fascinating insights into the early days of the club.For example the debate as to whether clubs in the South should either be allowed to play against or turn professional is riveting reading.However just as one is getting engrossed in the subject it turns to other subjects such as the Boer War or bycylcle manufacturing.The penultimate Chapter barely mentions Woolwich Arsenal FC.A paragraph here and there.Instead we get pages on Danskins cycle business and the election of the first Labour MP for Woolwich.The last Chapter is basically a transcription of part of the radio commentary of the 1936 Cup Final.Chosen it would seem because David Danskin was listening to it in hospital.
What the author has written about the formation of the club is interesting.He seems to have forgotten that is the sole reason for any purchase of this book.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
A mixed bag, missing some important details, 9 Oct 2006
This quite short volume about Arsenal's early years in Woolwich is full of useful historical material like match reports, minutes of meetings and photos, but overall it's a bit lacking. The author keeps switching from being a history of Arsenal to a history of football and of south-east London in general, but doesn't marry the two very well and it reads quite disjointedly, especially some highly irrelevant details like the Jack the Ripper murders.
Also the book misses out on some important people, especially Jack Humble who was chairman of the club and a director for forty years but whose biography and personal life is overlooked compared to Fred Beardsley and David Danskin. Whether that's through bias or because the author could not find much information about him, I'm not sure. John Spurling's "Rebels for the Cause" covers him much better and gives a more balanced picture of the club's move to professionalism and eventually the Football League.
Still, short of going and reading newspapers and archive records from the time, this is one of the better sources of Arsenal's very early history, and the people whose lives it does cover in detail are covered well.
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