The Goalkeeper's Revenge and Other Stories

by Bill Naughton

One of a series of top-quality fiction for schools, this is a collection of stories of a Lancashire childhood, of football in the streets, fishing, fighting and school, of growing up and looking for work, and of characters such as Spit Nolan the champion trolley-rider, and Sam Dalt the goalkeeper.

Genres: Short Stories, Childrens, Fiction, Historical Fiction

118 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 22, 1967

About the author

William John Francis Naughton (1910-1992) was a popular ‘working class’ author and playwright who was born in Ballyhaunis, County Mayo, Ireland in June 1910 and died in early January 1992 in Ballasalla, Isle of Man. He was four years old when his family moved to Bolton, Lancashire, where, after leaving school around 1924, he worked as a weaver, coal-bagger and lorry-driver, enjoying a variety of experience and knowledge before starting to write with a rare honesty and perception about ‘ordinary’ people. Although ‘Alfie’ is the play with which he will always be associated, mostly because of the film starring Michael Caine, he was a prolific writer of quality work which included such notable plays as ‘My Flesh My Blood’, ‘All In Good Time’; plus novels, short stories and children’s books. Two other plays were made into films –‘Spring and Port Wine’, with James Mason as Rafe Crompton, and ‘The Family Way’, which starred John Mills. His work also included ‘One Small Boy’, ‘A Roof Over Your Head’, and short story collections such as ‘Late Night on Watling Street’ ‘The Bees Have Stopped Working’, and ‘The Goalkeeper's Revenge’. Among his most popular autobiographical works, well worth seeking out, are ‘On The Pig’s Back’ and ‘Saintly Billy’.

Reviews

[M.M. Vaughan · Rating 5 out of 5]

My teacher read 'Spit Nolan' to us when I was ten years old. I particularly remember it because it was the first book that really made me cry - and in the middle of class too! I used my pocket money to buy the book and it's one that I still take out and read every once in a while.
Even though the stories are set in Lancashire (I've never been), for boys (which I'm not) and back in the early 1900's, there's something about the cleverness and originality of the stories that's fascinating - young con-artists, the underdog getting the upper hand and so on.

The fact that the stories are short too make them the perfect read for teachers. I've done some great work with kids using these stories as a starting point.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

My teacher read the story "The Goalkeeper's Revenge" to us in class assembly many years ago (I think I must have been 10 at the time). I loved that story so much that I later bought the book with my pocket money, as well as a number of his other books. I remember that there were a lot of good stories in this book. Oddly enough, when I went to high school, some years later, Naughton's play "Spring and Port Wine" was on the school syllabus, so I was lucky enough to study his work in class. This book is a very good example of what a wonderful storyteller Bill Naughton was.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best set of short stories I've read about growing up in England.

[Amber Scaife · Rating 2 out of 5]

A small collection of stories centered around children from working-class families in England in the 1930s. Fair-to-middling, these. I'm not sure that they've aged very well or that kiddos now would much enjoy them.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

As for most people, my teacher read this out to us in class (circa 1971) and I've never forgotten it. Reading it at the moment. Reminiscing at its best.

[Mathew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having found this in a list of recommended reads from between 1952 and 1977, I thought I would give this collection of short stories a go. All those that lauded it had fond memories of reading it or having it read to them in school and most all made note of one particular story in the collection: Spit Nolan - the boy with dodgy lungs whose skill lay in creating and driving his go-cart/trolley (for the record, my favourites were Skinny Nancy and The Fight on the Mountain Road).

Having read the collection, I can understand the appeal and its longevity. Naughton stories are embellished memories of his own childhood/observations whilst in growing up near the pits in Bolton. Although he spent the first few years in Ballyhaunis, County Mayo, his family moved to there in 1914 when Naughton was still young.

The world which he would have grown up in is so clearly evoked in each of these stories and as an adult reader, this sense of place and the impact it had on children's lives is what I loved dearly when reading this. Although my life and that of Naughton's childhood is separated by over half a century, the activities and actions of the children and that sense of childhood prevalent throughout was still so close to my own: he gets that divide that exists between the mysterious world of adults and that of children growing into that world. I wonder how many authors for children these days write books in which windows into real/quite ordinary childhoods which celebrate that realistic sense of play and exploration around the locality are central?

Named one of the earliest of the 'kitchen sink school of writers', is a title which I think captures Naughton quite well. He is a writer of people, and his sense of being a child within the community comes across with great clarity. In the acknowledgements he writes that the book is for 'all my old mates who used to gather at the street corner.' Does anyone else remember doing this as a child? I do. Vividly.

[Ken Horie · Rating 4 out of 5]

12/6= 40 minutes Marco Polo= 60 minutes

1. Football
2. Stupid
3. Clever
4. Thief
5. Poison
6. Smile
7. Read

"No, I don't want any boys. Certainly not a boy like you!" Suddenly I felt brave. "No," I said, "and I certainly don't want a boss like you!"
When I read it, I laughed out so loud. This is from short story called a real good smile. Story is about a boy is getting the job and was told how to act in interviewing. This story was really funny and may be make fun of people who try's to get a job with fake smile and attitude.

The book had several stories, and I like some of it, but some others were really hard to understand and I couldn't even understand what they want to tell through the story...

[Ruiji Kimura · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/17 30min
5/19 35min

7-word-summary
Sim - goalkeeper - excellent - kicked out - school team - arcade - revenge!

〜PASSAGE/EXCERPT from the book that you liked or didn't like〜
He stopped it easily.
〜Why did you like/didn't you like the passage/excerpt you wrote above〜
This scene describe that Sim match against his rival, Bob. Bob was a good football player, but Sim did it! I'm excited!
〜What do you think about the book (or part of the book that you read)〜
I'm excited because Sim beat Bob who was his rival and kicked out him. I like revenge taken.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thirteen short children's stories. They depict an age that seems much longer ago now, than it did when I first read them nearly forty years ago - said the old fart. For some reason it was Seventeen Oranges that stuck in my head but on reading again I also remembered Spit Nolan, Skinny Nancy and Maggie's First Reader. Great stuff.

[Peat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I keep reading this every once in a while, even though I'm very much a grown man, because there's very few books out there really nail a sense of time and place so much. Just lovely writing and charming stories.

[Zac Stojcevski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Firstly the book itself. Bought it recently at a school fete for a donation along with other books and found this to be a 1986 reprint of a book initially published in 1961. This book bears the stamp of WALLACE HIGH SCHOOL English Department in Northern Ireland - lost, stolen or borrowed and never returned? Somehow it’s in Australia.

The stories are based on tales of a Lancashire childhood probably a century ago with many of the glimpses having relevance to childhoods and neighbourhoods in the antipodes to living memory.

Written in a way that most emotions are covered with aplomb and pathos - a wonderful collection of short stories that perchance entered my life just when reminisce and nostalgia is becoming commonplace.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Technically, this was a re-read, as it was a set text for my studies many years ago. The only one of the stories I actually remembered was '17 Oranges'. Not TOO dated in content, but the comment on the back that it is 'for and about boys' grates a little. About boys, yes, but I'm sure lots of girls will enjoy them as much.

[Steve Ayers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved this as a kid, bought it again for a book group discussion on short stories. It's either not aged as well or I have matured in the last 40 odd years. Short and easy to read tales with a moral and a look back on the author's upbringing in Lancashire in the 1930s.

[Ali A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

nice book to enjoy short stories reading

[Kate Fromings · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, solid collection of short stories that keep you engaged. It has dated slightly, but that adds to it's charm.

[Year 5 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this in reading group C

[John Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book that's been sitting on my bookshelf since I were a kid. Great collection of short stories. I vaguely remember being read 'Spit Nolan' in class.

'Thirteen stories for and about boys' apparently. 'Maggie's First Reader' is very reminiscent of Educating Rita and nothing to do with boys.

[Mishal]

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[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best collections of short stories I have come across. I read Bill Naughton's A Dog Called Nelson at school and am now re-reading his works as an adult. I recently saw Oldham Coliseum's production of Naughton's Spring and Port Wine and thoroughly enjoyed it however I don't think it was as good as these short stories. These stories capture a world long gone - mainly Bolton in the first half of the 20th Century. Lots of the language and places are recognisable to Boltonians and that certainly adds a great deal for me but it is far from being essential -- in fact if I have one complaint about the book, it is how a lot of the language lacks the Bolton dialect.

Nevertheless the stories are just fantastic and take you into the world of Naughton's childhood. They are aimed at a young audience and often have a message and/or moral to them but this never seems forced. I enjoyed the title story but it is not my favourite. For me, the endearing story of Maggie's first read about the empowering impact is beautiful as is The Haircut, about the husband and wife barbershop.

The best of the stories for me is Spit Nolan which I don't want to ruin by giving away the plot but is an amazing fragment of childhood told in a way that makes me love the short story form.

[Maryame · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book until this very day remains to be my favourite.