Blades history book(s)?

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WhiteRoseBlade

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As a new fan, I'd like to read up but there doesn't appear to be a book with a narrative history of the club, at least not one that shows up on Amazon?

I know The Complete Record has a short summary of each season but I ideally want a bit more detail.

What books would everyone recommend? I figure I can put books into chronological order and piece things together that way.
 

WhiteRoseBlade said:
As a new fan, I'd like to read up but there doesn't appear to be a book with a narrative history of the club, at least not one that shows up on Amazon?

I know The Complete Record has a short summary of each season but I ideally want a bit more detail.

What books would everyone recommend? I figure I can put books into chronological order and piece things together that way.
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In 1989 I bought The first 100 years which became my bible until 1999 when "Complete Records" became my "New Testament" bible. If you want more detail, then if you have plenty of time, look at the Morning Telegraph or Green Un archives at the Central Library
 
WhiteRoseBlade said:
As a new fan, I'd like to read up but there doesn't appear to be a book with a narrative history of the club, at least not one that shows up on Amazon?

I know The Complete Record has a short summary of each season but I ideally want a bit more detail.

What books would everyone recommend? I figure I can put books into chronological order and piece things together that way.
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There's the complete biography of SUFC or something. I bought it in the club shop about 4 years ago. Seemed to be pretty in depth to me.
 
Matthew Bell's "Fit and Proper" is more an off the field history of events from about 1980 to 2010 but still worth reading. I said in my review I wrote on this site that it is IMHO the best book ever written about United and 4 years on I still think that's the case.
 
Revolution said:
Matthew Bell's "Fit and Proper" is more an off the field history of events from about 1980 to 2010 but still worth reading. I said in my review I wrote on this site that it is IMHO the best book ever written about United and 4 years on I still think that's the case.
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Ok, I will have to read this book soon!
 
WhiteRoseBlade said:
As a new fan, I'd like to read up but there doesn't appear to be a book with a narrative history of the club, at least not one that shows up on Amazon?

I know The Complete Record has a short summary of each season but I ideally want a bit more detail.

What books would everyone recommend? I figure I can put books into chronological order and piece things together that way.
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As a new fan, I'd be interested in how you've become one if you are happy to share?

On the books thing Revolution is correct btw.
 
Here's ones I have at home...

General
Football in Sheffield
Sheffield United
Sheffield United Football Club - The Official Centenary History
Sheffield United FC: The Biography
Sheffield United Football Club - 100 Greats
The Official Encyclopaedia of Sheffield United Football Club
A Complete Record of Sheffield United Football Club 1889-1999
Sheffield United Football Club - Who's Who
Sheffield United Head To Head

Specific
Champions! Sheffield United's Championship Triumph 1897-98
Colossus: The True Story of William Foulke
Association Football
Red, White & Khaki: The Story of the Only Wartime FA Cup Final
The Jimmy Hagan Story
Match of My Life - Sheffield United
Between the Sticks
A Quality Player: The Life and Career of Tony Currie
Sheffield United: Thirty Memorable Games from the Seventies
Blade Heart: The Tony Kenworthy Autobiography
Edwards...One-Nil! The Keith Edwards Story
Blade Runners: Lives in Football
Dooley!
Fit and Proper?: Conflicts and Conscience in an English Football Club
Made in Sheffield: My Story
 
Thanks everyone! Often difficult to spot the rarer books on Amazon as they can be a way down the search results

Raul (sorry, can't work out how to tag you), see my thread in the Intros forum.
 
WalthamstowBlade said:
Here's ones I have at home...

General
Football in Sheffield
Sheffield United
Sheffield United Football Club - The Official Centenary History
Sheffield United FC: The Biography
Sheffield United Football Club - 100 Greats
The Official Encyclopaedia of Sheffield United Football Club
A Complete Record of Sheffield United Football Club 1889-1999
Sheffield United Football Club - Who's Who
Sheffield United Head To Head

Specific
Champions! Sheffield United's Championship Triumph 1897-98
Colossus: The True Story of William Foulke
Association Football
Red, White & Khaki: The Story of the Only Wartime FA Cup Final
The Jimmy Hagan Story
Match of My Life - Sheffield United
Between the Sticks
A Quality Player: The Life and Career of Tony Currie
Sheffield United: Thirty Memorable Games from the Seventies
Blade Heart: The Tony Kenworthy Autobiography
Edwards...One-Nil! The Keith Edwards Story
Blade Runners: Lives in Football
Dooley!
Fit and Proper?: Conflicts and Conscience in an English Football Club
Made in Sheffield: My Story
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Have you read Alan Birchenall's autobiography? It is the best autobiography written by someone with a Blade connection. A lot of funny stories
 
Silent Blade said:
Have you read Alan Birchenall's autobiography? It is the best autobiography written by someone with a Blade connection. A lot of funny stories
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Oh aye, forgot about that. My dad never liked Birchenall for some reason, thought he was "flash". I showed him Birchenall's book, Bring Back the Birch, with a cover showing Birchenall dressed as Mr Chips and wielding a cane. "He always was a twat", Walth Snr commented.
 
Silent Blade said:
Have you read Alan Birchenall's autobiography? It is the best autobiography written by someone with a Blade connection. A lot of funny stories
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It is good (and it is the funniest) but I would rank Keith Gillespie's higher.

Quick verdict on other Blades related autobiographies:

Warnock (1st volume) - interesting but extremely self serving
Hodgkinson - riddled with factual errors and missing whole chunks of time. Very disappointing
Kenworthy: pretty good
Edwards: not as well written as Kenworthy's but still interesting.

I gather Terry Curran's book is good, but like the Dooley book I would not spend money on it.
 
WalthamstowBlade said:
Oh aye, forgot about that. My dad never liked Birchenall for some reason, thought he was "flash". I showed him Birchenall's book, Bring Back the Birch, with a cover showing Birchenall dressed as Mr Chips and wielding a cane. "He always was a twat", Walth Snr commented.
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Remember his kiss with TC, and the outrage in the papers the following day.

How very dare they? :cool:
 

Not strictly a history book, but The Evergreen in Red and White about Rab Howell is worth a read.

The first Black Footballer about Arthur Wharton is also worth a gander.
 
WhiteRoseBlade said:
As a new fan, I'd like to read up but there doesn't appear to be a book with a narrative history of the club, at least not one that shows up on Amazon?

I know The Complete Record has a short summary of each season but I ideally want a bit more detail.

What books would everyone recommend? I figure I can put books into chronological order and piece things together that way.
Click to expand...
you say your a new fan, how old are you ? and what on what on earth possessed you to choose to support us ? iam just curious. your in for a lifetime of dissapointment iam afraid. Welcome to family by the way UTB
 
georgebernardshaw said:
Remember his kiss with TC, and the outrage in the papers the following day.

How very dare they? :cool:
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I wasnt at the match as I was at boarding school. It was all over Monday's papers and I got stick from the other pupils who were saying "Your hero is a homo!"
 
Revolution said:
Hodgkinson - riddled with factual errors and missing whole chunks of time. Very disappointing
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Yes, it was, he wrote in great detail about George Best scoring against him at BDTBL in October 1967 (we lost 3-0) so I checked in one of MUFC's history website to find out the scorers and they were Kidd, Law and Aston. It annoys me when people romanticise things in their autobiographies. Also Hodgy's ghost writer Les Scott is a Stoke fan who obviously didnt check if the details he got from Hodgy were correct
 
That Match of My Life book is a good one. Each chapter is a different player (starting, I think, with Tommy Hoyland and ending with Jagielka) talking about their career and one particular United match.
 
Silent Blade said:
Yes, it was, he wrote in great detail about George Best scoring against him at BDTBL in October 1967 (we lost 3-0) so I checked in one of MUFC's history website to find out the scorers and they were Kidd, Law and Aston. It annoys me when people romanticise things in their autobiographies. Also Hodgy's ghost writer Les Scott is a Stoke fan who obviously didnt check if the details he got from Hodgy were correct
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The Biography also has tons of errors.

What annoys me about it is that there are people like me and you out there, who, for a modest fee (£100, a strap on dildo and an invite to the launch would do it for me), would proof read the book and correct all the errors.

It's sheer bloody laziness
 
Darren said:
The Biography also has tons of errors.

What annoys me about it is that there are people like me and you out there, who, for a modest fee (£100, a strap on dildo and an invite to the launch would do it for me), would proof read the book and correct all the errors.

It's sheer bloody laziness
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The Biography in paperback has some amendments
 
I also have in my collection as well as others mentioned the following

150 Years of Bramall Lane

and also two what would be termed brochures celebrating our 4th Division Championship win in 1982 and our promotion to Division 1 in 1989/90
 
My Dad's favourite player was Jimmy Hagan and I am looking to purchase that book "The Jimmy Hagan Story" for his birthday, which is next month.
I was going to ask broomhillblade if it was any good ;)

However, it's a very long time since Broomers posted on here February 2014 it appears. So, what gives?
He was allus a good contributor
Any pointers Foxy Linz ?
 
Couldn't agree more with the comments about Hodgy's autobiography. The biggest howler for me was his account of our relegation in 1968: "Our final game was at home to West Ham United. For Sheffield United it was a must-win game. We didn't win it. What's more we lost it." We did lose at home to WHU but that was on April 27. We still had to go to Burnley on May 4 - we won 2-0 - before Chelsea came to Bramall Lane on May 11 and won 2-1. Very poor, really.
 
Shalalalafenoughty said:
Couldn't agree more with the comments about Hodgy's autobiography. The biggest howler for me was his account of our relegation in 1968: "Our final game was at home to West Ham United. For Sheffield United it was a must-win game. We didn't win it. What's more we lost it." We did lose at home to WHU but that was on April 27. We still had to go to Burnley on May 4 - we won 2-0 - before Chelsea came to Bramall Lane on May 11 and won 2-1. Very poor, really.
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It had a pretty decent publisher too, didn't it?
 
Shalalalafenoughty said:
Couldn't agree more with the comments about Hodgy's autobiography. The biggest howler for me was his account of our relegation in 1968: "Our final game was at home to West Ham United. For Sheffield United it was a must-win game. We didn't win it. What's more we lost it." We did lose at home to WHU but that was on April 27. We still had to go to Burnley on May 4 - we won 2-0 - before Chelsea came to Bramall Lane on May 11 and won 2-1. Very poor, really.
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Ernest Jackson left SUFC in August 1955 but book mentioned him a lot as if he was still in the backroom staff in the 1960's and giving Hodgy advices. I think the book meant Harry Latham
 

Kenilworth said:
My Dad's favourite player was Jimmy Hagan and I am looking to purchase that book "The Jimmy Hagan Story" for his birthday, which is next month.
I was going to ask broomhillblade if it was any good ;)

However, it's a very long time since Broomers posted on here February 2014 it appears. So, what gives?
He was allus a good contributor
Any pointers Foxy Linz ?
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I'd hazard a guess that if you look at his posting history, you can see why he left.

He took umbrage at a general warning not to be snarky.
 
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