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Ian Plenderleith

Goodreads Author

Born

in Louth, The United Kingdom

Website

https://halcyonpublishing.co.uk/products/the-la...

Twitter

PlenderleithIan

Genre

Fiction, History, Memoir

Influences

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... ...more

Member Since

July 2012

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My latest book (published September 2025) is another collection of football short stories, The Last Amateur (Halcyon Publishing), and is "inspired by the amorality, the greed, and the somehow still irresistible allure of the modern game", to quote the cover blurb. It follows my book about being an amateur ref (Reffing Hell, 2022) and my counter-Hornby supporter's memoir The Quiet Fan (2018). That book was preceded by my historical analysis of the wildly entertaining North American Soccer League of the 1970s - 'Rock n Roll Soccer', which was published in the UK by Icon Books in 2014, and by Thomas Dunne in the US in 2015. My debut was back in 2001, For Whom the Ball Rolls (Orion Books), my first foray into football fiction.

The rest of my li ...more

28 posts
Ian Plenderleith's Blog

Open Wide For Some Soccer podcast

Thanks to David McKenzie and former Diplomats and Cosmos defender Bob Iarusci for having me on the latest episode of their excellent NASL podcast, Open Wide For Some Soccer . You can hear the episode here. Among the topics discussed were:* What inspired me to write a book about the NASL

Celeb meets star* How I came up with the title for the book* Why the MLS is disrespectful to the history o Read more of this blog post »

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Published on November 30, 2021 08:43

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Ian Plenderleith’s books

Average rating: 3.84 · 328 ratings · 48 reviews · 9 distinct works • Similar authors

	Rock 'n' Roll Soccer: The Short Life and Fast Times of the North American Soccer League by Ian Plenderleith (Goodreads Author), Rodney Marsh (Foreword) 3.87 avg rating — 223 ratings — published 2014 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Principles of Banking by Moorad Choudhry, John Cummins (Foreword), Ian Plenderleith (Goodreads Author) (Foreword) 3.67 avg rating — 58 ratings — published 2011 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Reffing Hell: Stuck in the middle of a game gone wrong 4.22 avg rating — 23 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Quiet Fan 3.36 avg rating — 22 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	For Whom the Ball Rolls 3.84 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 2001 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Chairman's Daughter 3.75 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 2012 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Last Amateur and Other Stories it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Nutmeg: The Scottish Football Periodical (Nutmeg Magazine #25) by Daniel Gray (Editor), Maurice Smith (Contributor), Grant Russell (Contributor) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Rock 'n' Roll Soccer Rock 'n' Roll Soccer: The Short Life and Fast Times of the North American Soccer League by Ian Plenderleith (Goodreads Author), Rodney Marsh (Foreword) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Ian Plenderleith rated a book it was amazing Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Took me four decades to get round to this after my mum recommended it to me. Read it slowly and with immense pleasure in every paragraph, because that's what this classic deserves. Just an endlessly fascinating social snapshot of rural England in the ...more
Aug 27, 2025 03:59AM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Ian Plenderleith rated a book really liked it Animal Joy: A Book of Laughter and Resuscitation by Nuar Alsadir	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Aug 27, 2025 03:58AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Animal Joy by Nuar Alsadir. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Animal Joy by Nuar Alsadir <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Ian Plenderleith rated a book really liked it Animal Joy: A Book of Laughter and Resuscitation by Nuar Alsadir	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Aug 27, 2025 03:57AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Animal Joy by Nuar Alsadir. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Animal Joy by Nuar Alsadir <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Ian Plenderleith rated a book really liked it The Man Behind the Goal by Brian Glanville	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Glanville's early stories from the 50s and 60s are are his best, he's less at ease when describing the more modern game of... the 70s. There are some beauties in here, especially Footballers Don't Cry, Goalkeepers are Crazy, Greenberg and the title s ...more
Aug 27, 2025 03:53AM · 1 like · like · see review
Ian Plenderleith rated a book it was amazing Goalkeepers are different by Brian Glanville	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Although aimed at a teenage audience, this is the most compelling football novel I've ever come across. As a kid I read it eight times and got through two copies. As an adult I re-read it and reviewed it for When Saturday Comes' classic football lite ...more
Aug 27, 2025 03:50AM · 2 likes · like · see review
Ian Plenderleith rated a book really liked it Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet by Ben Goldfarb (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Aug 27, 2025 03:49AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Crossings by Ben Goldfarb. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Crossings by Ben Goldfarb <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Ian Plenderleith rated a book it was amazing Go to War: Football on the Brink in the '80s by Jon Spurling	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Aug 27, 2025 03:35AM · 1 like · like
Ian Plenderleith and 1 other person liked Natascha Porpora's review of Reffing Hell: Stuck in the middle of a game gone wrong: "Took me a solid 5 minutes to get to the 4th line of this book because the first two sentences had me in stitches. Hilarious and brilliantly written, "Reffing Hell" by Ian Plenderleith makes you seriously question why amateur football (or "soccer" for " Read more of this review »
Aug 27, 2025 03:33AM · see review