England Away

by John King

England Away works on three levels - past, present and future - as pensioner Bill Farrell remembers his war experiences in London. Tommy Johnson fights his way through Holland and Germany for an England football match in Berlin, and Harry Roberts considers the future fuelled by doses of Dutch skunk and German speed. Exploring stereotypes of language and nationalism, the primal pulls of lust and aggression, England Away culminates in a unity of the tribes and a blitzkrieg through the streets of Berlin.

Genres: Fiction, Football, British Literature, Literature, 20th Century, Novels

282 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

John King is the author of eight novels – The Football Factory, Headhunters, England Away, Human Punk, White Trash, The Prison House, Skinheads and The Liberal Politics Of Adolf Hitler. The Football Factory was turned into a high-profile film. A new novel – Slaughterhouse Prayer – was published on 8 November 2018.

King has written short stories and non-fiction for a number of publications, with articles appearing in the likes of The New Statesman, Le Monde and La Repubblica. His books have been widely translated abroad. He edits the fiction fanzine Verbal and lives in London.

Reviews

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

With his ‘Football Factory’ trilogy, John King provides us with an unflinching and uncompromising, yet compelling look at the dark world of football related gang violence of Britain in the 1990’s.

King neither condones, condemns nor judges the perpetrators, but merely tells is like it is – or at least certainly was at that time. The stories he has created are bleak and brutal; the violence is often shocking, frightening, repulsive and at times unrelenting. Although this is fiction it all too often feels very authentic, it all feels very real.

The ‘Football Factory’ trilogy (‘The Football Factory, Headhunters and England Away’) is consistently well written and convincing throughout. Despite the scale and nature of the violence portrayed, King somehow manages to avoid being gratuitous. Neither does it feel like King is glorifying the culture of violence he is writing about.

These books are about tribalism, about the working classes of Britain in the 1990’s, about an ingrained culture of alcohol fueled violence as part of everyday life. Whilst Football is at the centre of all three novels and central to the lives of the main protagonists – ultimately (and paradoxically) it’s almost incidental to the main themes explored here.

Violent, uncompromising and bleak – but equally thought-provoking, compelling and intelligent.

This is not merely yet another story of hard men, living hard lives and doing violent things.

[Luca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uno stile incredibilmente intenso e un linguaggio vietato ai minori pungente e realistico. Il tutto velato di leggera ma percettibile malinconia e punteggiato di momenti comico-grotteschi davvero improbabili. E' il terzo libro della trilogia del calcio di J. K. Molti personaggi sono giá noti. Qui i nostri eroi partono alla volta di Berlino. Si gioca Gemania -Inghilterra. Il coro che unisce la truppa è "due guerre mondiali e una coppa del mondo", tanto per mettere in chiaro le cose. Non vengono in pace, i ragazzi. C'è chi la vive come un seguito della seconda guerra mondiale (di cui per altro ha una conoscenza abbastanza approssimativa e inesatta) e una questione d'onore, chi come una vacanza e un'occasione per allontanarsi da Londra per poterne sentire poi la mancanza e mitigare la nostalgia in compagnia di qualche bellezza continentale. scorrono fiuni di birra e cresce la voglia di menare le mani. Nello stesso momento , in patria rimangono quelli che le guerre le hanno combattute per davvero. Guerre vecchie come il secondo conflitto mondiale o piú recenti come la guerra del golfo.
Motivazioni e ideali diversi. Tutti , ma proprio tutti, cercano sollievo e salvezza in una buona bevuta e una ghignata con qualche amico. Non tutti la trovano, a volte i fantasmi sono troppo forti.

[John Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fairly untaxing. Ostensibly set in Europe –England fans following the team from Dover to Berlin and the World Cup there. This is warfare: England's honour and all that..

The book is very human, helped me to 'understand' football violence, particularly in its heyday.

Are “real “ wars (eg WW2, Falklands, Gulf....) any more “real” than football violence? There are evil bastards in both camps [each type of 'war'] and good samaritans too. War crimes are despised by the majority of decent fighters as child abuse is by the majority of England Away – NB treatment meted out to a porn merchant in Amsterdam believed to be dealing in child porn.

I enjoyed reading it.

[Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just as ugly and unfiltered as FF, but with a soul there that I feel like that one was lacking. It reads pretty cliche at times, but that's almost entirely down to the fact that the style has been emulated so much in the last couple decades, mostly by people that you feel like missed the point.

[Joost · Rating 4 out of 5]

My book is about a group of friends who are going to berlin. On there journey they go to Holland, a lot of things happen there. When they are in Holland they go out with girls till they go to germany.

My favoriet character is Harry because hes very funny and i got the most details about them.
The characters are really realistic because they do things that are an everyday task.
The story didn't keep me guessing because every thing was explained pretty good.
The best part was when they first come to holland.
I think the best scene written is a tense scene.
This book made me laugh because it was just funny.

I didn't like that it was a some times really random what happend.
It was also a bit weird who was talking in the book.

I give this book 4 stars it's good but not perfect.
This was it bye!

[Gerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took this book on holiday and enjoyed it but having recently read Football Factory, I struggled a bit as it seemed very similar. There's only so much football violence and hooliganism a person can take, however there are many words of wisdom within these pages about the state of the UK and things have only deteriorated since this book was written almost 30 years ago. He talks of the "trendy cunts on the council, all those pro-queer, pro-black, anti-white cunts chipping away at England" and whilst I don't advocate sexual or racial hatred, things have certainly deteriorated here and such sentiments could no longer be voiced and not long before one would be a victim of the thought police for even thinking them. Very sad state of affairs!

[Andy Pandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Same as Football Factory. Pure adrenaline, striking like a punch deep into Deutschland. Great sequences from the old soldier turned ordinary London pensioner, Farrell. A meeting of some memorable football fans and girls they try to shag, on the ferry, in Amsterdam, on the trains of Europe, and in Berlin for the match/riot itself.
Okay, the invasion theme gets tiresome and worn, and this novel isn't as striking after having read Football Factory. But King had a lot more to give, the dialogue, partying and aggression still crackle more than they fizzle. A worthy bookend to the trilogy.
I read it in 2000 on a trip to Prague. Memories...

[George · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weird book, horrible read and awful characters, there’s something interesting in the old man’s war memories and his attitudes to the second world wat and it’s after effects, but overall the book is vulgar and offensive and sick and twisted, can’t say i’d really recommend this book to be honest. This is everything that is wrong with England and football culture, and they are proud of that.

[Desmond Rock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not quite as good as Football Factory but fairly bloody close. The flashbacks to the war were well judged and positioning the whole thing properly. Liked when the lads met the German Nazis and it made their skins crawl a little. Like all of King's works, very realistic and tactile.

[Paolo Nardi · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://speloncalibro.blogspot.it/2007...

[Stuart Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like 2.5 stars. Nicely woven narrative, but for what?

[Richard Buckley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Violent gritty account of 90’s British hooliganism. It captures the mentality of these Neanderthal idiots misrepresenting the countries and sports ideologies.

[James Rice · Rating 5 out of 5]

His second best, after Football Factory.

[Eric Barber]

The book was a decent enough read I suppose. It was a lot better than the previous part of the series, Headhunters.



I think you have to be English to believe any of the bravado of this book, such as one of the main characters, Tommy Johnson, claiming the English always rout the Italians easy, thousands at a time. Makes little sense to those of us who know that the English, and especially Man Utd fans have been on the receiving ends of severely violent attacks for decades at the hands of Roma fans. I found the John Bull stiff upper lip nonsense extremely tiresome in this book, and the juvenile comparisons of English supporters to the soldiers on D-Day as pathetic, this book harps on every played out stereo type that has been written in the past by better authors.



The only truly interesting part of this novel was the older guy Harry chasing skirt in Holland and Berlin, some of it was pretty funny.



If you have read the first two books in the series, might as well read this one, otherwise don't bother with this.

[Jamie Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

The loose trilogy comes to an end it what could've been an amazing book but I have the same problem I did with the previous 2 books.
Where the main story is very interesting and the characters are brilliant but then the book wonders off and goes for pages and pages about a completely different back story, The only difference is the back stories in this one were pretty great and very interesting about WWII and fitted in very well with the main story that tied in brilliantly at the end.
There was alot of filler pages mostly about prostitutes but I suppose when in Netherlands it was always going to find it's way into a book like this.
If you enjoyed Football Factory and Head Hunters then you will love this as it takes the best bit from them and puts it into one book but also adds the whole England v Germany History which fits in so well here.

77%

[Ian Rak · Rating 5 out of 5]

England Away by John King (January 1 1999). The third in the trilogy. Tommy Johnson and the Chelsea lads are on their way to Germany with similar lads from other clubs. Harry Robert’s is along but decides to see more of Europe. So much a reflection on life for almost everyone I know well.


https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jak · Rating 2 out of 5]

Continuing King's hoolie theme, but I remember it being unimpressive and nothing like Football Factory.

[Johnny Roastbeef · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5★