This is a really worthwhile and entertaining book, telling a story which should be told. The author writes well, and has structured the story cleverly both chronologically and with reference to the various 70s BL models. While he's predictably strong on the cars themselves, the social and political stuff is also surprisingly good.
It would be nice to see it properly published. As it is, it feels like a postgraduate thesis in A4, with its small font, poor pictures and floppy cover. Taken on by a mainstream publisher - in a normal paperback format, with a snappier title ("Car Crash!"), more and better pictures of the cars, people and strikes in a central plate section, and a bit of… Read more
A triumph. Sandbrook continues his series with a first rate run through the period 1974-79. My only slight disappointment with this book is its greater concentration on straight politics - a fascinating tale, certainly, and told with a novelist's sure touch, but the last third of the book feels less balanced than either the first two, or State of Emergency. But, given that Sandbrook had already covered much of the 1970s cultural ground in the latter title, that is understandable.
There have been too many books about Brian Clough. And - like many, I think - I've read quite a few of them. I only bought this because it is by Jonathan Wilson: Inverting the Pyramid really is that good. While this one is not a wholly satisfactory experience, it is certainly worth reading. But for me there is a quite superb (and much shorter) book hiding inside it. Wilson has structured his book in five chronological sections, but for this reader it resolved itself into three ... the second of which is excellent: The first couple of hundred pages cover Clough's childhood, playing career and management up to the Derby title win in 1972. It's done well, with some elegant and pithy… Read more
