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Articles of Faith
This collection of Russell Brand's columns for The Guardian not only follows the drama and tumult of the domestic and international football season but also a season in the life of one of our most celebrated comic talents. Brand chronicles events both on and off the pitch as he travels between Upton Park and Hollywood. In his literary riffings, football legends and newfound heroes brush shoulders with a pantheon of cultural icons. Matches are won and lost, Brand's faith in his beloved West Ham tested, while the palette of company he keeps stretches from Morrissey to Gallagher to Gascoigne and back again. Managerial manoeuvres at Wigan are discussed in reference to Joe Orton and the mysteries of the souks. The departure of Mourinho sparks reminisces of the shapely arse of a previous girlfriend. Love blossoms in the unlikely form of Paolo DiCanio. Arsenal's fluidity and purpose brings to mind yogic coitus of Sting and Trudie Styler. And the fate of his beloved West Ham is seen in parallel with the workings of his legendary libido. 'On what little things does happiness depend' he quotes Oscar Wilde - in football as in life.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published October 16, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 13, 2009
My wife kindly picked this up for me. I say kindly, as she meant well. The warning signs should have been there: it was 49p in a discount store, and it's a celebrity writing about football.
I've read Russell Brand's Booky Wook and found that ok, so I thought nothing ventured nothing gained. BIG mistake.
In the introduction he states that it's a collection of previously published newspaper columns, and that he doesn't care what the reader makes of that, as you've already paid for the book, and if you haven't paid, he doesn't care as he's already got his cash for the book.
That's a opening taster of how arrogant, unfunny and fatuous the book's content is going to be.
Brand professes to be a football fan, however to me he seems like a small boy, making ill judged sweeping generalisations and in the most patronising of tones.
He's SO cool because he supports West Ham Utd - yes Russell, of course you are. Anyone who thinks they're cool, plainly isn't, and Mr Brand certainly isn't the exception that proves the rule!
That this book exists (and his newspaper column, for that matter) simply proves that anything a "celebrity" (used in it's loosest terms here) writes can be published.
It's as if that annoying man, sat behind you at the match, who spouts useless "funny" remarks, has been allowed to publish a book. Brand dresses it up with his erudition, but as the saying goes: you can't polish a turd.
He's that guy at the party who has one snippet of information about the subject being discussed and then tries to hijack the conversation, leaving you hoping he'll need the toilet soon, so you can hide from any further discourse with him.
Even more cringeworthy are the "interviews" he conducts with other famous fans. He may as well have just crawled up their backside, so obsequious are his questions, and bon homie guffaws along with them.
To cap it all off, he makes predictions about who will be sacked and what will happen in the next few weeks. History proves that he is not skilled at this, even without hindsight he makes some terrible calls.
Read it at your peril, or simply laugh along at the terrible effort he's made of what could have been a good book.
I've read Russell Brand's Booky Wook and found that ok, so I thought nothing ventured nothing gained. BIG mistake.
In the introduction he states that it's a collection of previously published newspaper columns, and that he doesn't care what the reader makes of that, as you've already paid for the book, and if you haven't paid, he doesn't care as he's already got his cash for the book.
That's a opening taster of how arrogant, unfunny and fatuous the book's content is going to be.
Brand professes to be a football fan, however to me he seems like a small boy, making ill judged sweeping generalisations and in the most patronising of tones.
He's SO cool because he supports West Ham Utd - yes Russell, of course you are. Anyone who thinks they're cool, plainly isn't, and Mr Brand certainly isn't the exception that proves the rule!
That this book exists (and his newspaper column, for that matter) simply proves that anything a "celebrity" (used in it's loosest terms here) writes can be published.
It's as if that annoying man, sat behind you at the match, who spouts useless "funny" remarks, has been allowed to publish a book. Brand dresses it up with his erudition, but as the saying goes: you can't polish a turd.
He's that guy at the party who has one snippet of information about the subject being discussed and then tries to hijack the conversation, leaving you hoping he'll need the toilet soon, so you can hide from any further discourse with him.
Even more cringeworthy are the "interviews" he conducts with other famous fans. He may as well have just crawled up their backside, so obsequious are his questions, and bon homie guffaws along with them.
To cap it all off, he makes predictions about who will be sacked and what will happen in the next few weeks. History proves that he is not skilled at this, even without hindsight he makes some terrible calls.
Read it at your peril, or simply laugh along at the terrible effort he's made of what could have been a good book.
July 24, 2011
though not an English football fan, as a Russell Brand fan, i still appreciated reading his observations via his weekly column, especially when they strayed from the football topic. That said though, some football observation were right on and the same despite the code you may chose to follow - eg "football gives us a common language... What you're actually doing is submerging your identity as an individual into a whole that is common to us all. Separation is an illusion and in a game that is built around opposition e discover that ultimately we are all one."
August 7, 2019
I really enjoyed this book. I hadn't read any of his footy articles previously so this was all new to me.
I am not a football fan and this may have been part of the reason I liked it so much as the writing was humorous, irreverent and largely non-partisan which might not be appreciated by serious fans.
Very much written in Russell's "voice" with funny comparisons with his reputation as a womaniser and his love for Jose Mourino (amongst others) it introduced me to the various characters on the pitch and in the dugout together with the emotional highs and lows of following your team.
I am not a football fan and this may have been part of the reason I liked it so much as the writing was humorous, irreverent and largely non-partisan which might not be appreciated by serious fans.
Very much written in Russell's "voice" with funny comparisons with his reputation as a womaniser and his love for Jose Mourino (amongst others) it introduced me to the various characters on the pitch and in the dugout together with the emotional highs and lows of following your team.
June 27, 2023
Re-reading this book simply for Brands writing style.
I really enjoy him as a writer & am planning on reading his autobiographies but as I owned this book I quickly sped thru it as a warm up.
Unless your a big football fan I wouldn't recommend you read this as it is a collection of Brands football based articles.
I really enjoy him as a writer & am planning on reading his autobiographies but as I owned this book I quickly sped thru it as a warm up.
Unless your a big football fan I wouldn't recommend you read this as it is a collection of Brands football based articles.
January 6, 2018
Short, but not short enough.
Bored the life out of me as I have zero interest in football, which this is predominantly about. Interspersed with some very diluted Brand humour, I found myself hoping for the end, and only actually finishing the book as I had paid for it.
Bored the life out of me as I have zero interest in football, which this is predominantly about. Interspersed with some very diluted Brand humour, I found myself hoping for the end, and only actually finishing the book as I had paid for it.
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November 30, 2021The last line sums it up with true Britishness
December 1, 2015
“Articles of Faith” is a book by Russell Brand about football. Don’t be getting it though if you want a companion to his Booky Wook books or his DVD shows unless you like football.
Basically the book is a “collection of columns” that Brand wrote for the Guardian newspaper during the 2007-08 season. There is a smidgeon of added value with some extras that you wouldn’t have originally got with your newspaper, these mainly being the cover “in which I am inadvisedly posing as Christ”, and three interviews with famous football fans – a humorous discussion of the football songs “Three Lions” and “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” with David Baddiel, a rushed interview with James Corden about West Ham, and a chat about Manchester City becoming the richest club in the world with Noel Gallagher.
The “rattishly indulged” articles “focus chiefly on Brand’s reaction to the phenomena of football culture” rather than focusing on the football itself, and are done in the Russell Brand style with plenty of poetic and fruity language, lots of analogies, e.g. “like a knicker thief suddenly made manager of a laundrette”, and many a “wacky, sideways” view, e.g. “I enjoyed his scissor-kick somersault celebration although I’d be the first to condemn him if he did it in a refuge for battered women.”
The presentation is lavish with colour illustrations relating to the text throughout, such as one of “former Blades boss Neil Warnock poised in a circle of stone, stinking of chicken’s blood, spewing white-eyed incantations and clutching a buckled dolly of West Ham player Julien Faubert”, but never actual photos of any of the football or footballers, the only photos being promo shots of Brand, pencil in hand (for example).
As for the football this was the season when Steve McClaren’s England “smashed to bits” the “beautiful distraction of Euro 2008”, and where “poor unlovable Avram’s” Chelsea and Manchester United contested the Champions League final. As there is no context presented between articles a basic knowledge of what went on in the football world at this time, as well as the characters, is advisable.
Overall then what you have here is a funny, episodic read about the 2007-08 English football season, with a slight West Ham bias (Brand being a West Ham supporter). His last words are “Football does not make sense” so ultimately this book probably doesn’t make sense, but I thought it was a good read anyway.
Basically the book is a “collection of columns” that Brand wrote for the Guardian newspaper during the 2007-08 season. There is a smidgeon of added value with some extras that you wouldn’t have originally got with your newspaper, these mainly being the cover “in which I am inadvisedly posing as Christ”, and three interviews with famous football fans – a humorous discussion of the football songs “Three Lions” and “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” with David Baddiel, a rushed interview with James Corden about West Ham, and a chat about Manchester City becoming the richest club in the world with Noel Gallagher.
The “rattishly indulged” articles “focus chiefly on Brand’s reaction to the phenomena of football culture” rather than focusing on the football itself, and are done in the Russell Brand style with plenty of poetic and fruity language, lots of analogies, e.g. “like a knicker thief suddenly made manager of a laundrette”, and many a “wacky, sideways” view, e.g. “I enjoyed his scissor-kick somersault celebration although I’d be the first to condemn him if he did it in a refuge for battered women.”
The presentation is lavish with colour illustrations relating to the text throughout, such as one of “former Blades boss Neil Warnock poised in a circle of stone, stinking of chicken’s blood, spewing white-eyed incantations and clutching a buckled dolly of West Ham player Julien Faubert”, but never actual photos of any of the football or footballers, the only photos being promo shots of Brand, pencil in hand (for example).
As for the football this was the season when Steve McClaren’s England “smashed to bits” the “beautiful distraction of Euro 2008”, and where “poor unlovable Avram’s” Chelsea and Manchester United contested the Champions League final. As there is no context presented between articles a basic knowledge of what went on in the football world at this time, as well as the characters, is advisable.
Overall then what you have here is a funny, episodic read about the 2007-08 English football season, with a slight West Ham bias (Brand being a West Ham supporter). His last words are “Football does not make sense” so ultimately this book probably doesn’t make sense, but I thought it was a good read anyway.
June 9, 2015
When I picked this up in a sale a while ago, I'll admit I didn't realise it was a football book. I was drawn in as a fan of Russell Brand and nothing more. That said, I didn't give up on it when I discovered what it was, and I'm glad. I have no interest in football at all, so naturally didn't expect to find any enjoyment in reading it. Surprisingly, however, I was entertained despite this. Brand's writing is almost hypnotic, in that it doesn't really matter what he's rambling on about; I still want to keep reading. I believe that to be the main reason I managed to finish the book. Aside from that, he made some great points about some of the topics he discussed, and his stories about meeting some of his idols were funny and charming.
August 17, 2013
UMM BIT OF A STRUGGLE BUT OK WHEN NOT IN A THINKING MOOD AND HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AFOOTIE FAN JUST NOT THE HAMMERS !! DOES MAKE ME THINK WHEN DESCRIBING HOW WE ALL HAVE TRIBAL INSTINCTS WHICH COME TO THE FOREFONT ON A SATURDAY PM !!
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February 25, 2009It's a bit boring unless you're a die hard West Ham fan.
July 30, 2010
Brand is a funny, surprisingly insightful and intelligent writer. I really liked it!
August 11, 2013
This book is for hardcore Premiere League only, and even they will probably find it dated and irrelevant. The style is nice though, hence the 2 stars.
April 17, 2015
I only read the first chapter then it went back to the library.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews