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Your Show: 'The football novel is back.' The Times
LONGLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZEAS HEARD ON R4s FRONT ROW'The football novel is back.' The TimesWonderful.' IRENOSEN OKOJIE'A novel rich in both poetry and detail.' DAVID PEACE'Memorable and moving . . . Your Show is a remarkable book' Observer____________The Uriah Rennie Show? Damn right it is.From Jamaica to Sheffield to the recently formed Premier League, Uri rises through the ranks as a referee, making it to the highest level of our national game.But along the way he is confronted with tensions and prejudices, old and new, which emerge as his every move is watched, analysed and commented on.Your Show is the thrilling story of one man's pioneering efforts to make it, against the odds, to the very top of his profession and beyond.'A gripping, thought-provoking and important read.' Daily Mail' Incredibly moving . . . Whether a fan of football or not, readers will love this novel, and its ultimate message -- one of hope. ' NICK BRADLEY'Fantastic.' CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS
- GenresFiction21st Century
336 pages, Paperback
First published April 7, 2022
2 people are currently reading
202 people want to read
About the author
Ashley Hickson-Lovence
7 books68 followersAshley Hickson-Lovence was born in London in 1991 and is a former secondary school English teacher with a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing from the University of East Anglia. His debut novel, The 392, was released in April 2019 and his second novel, Your Show, was released in April 2022. His third book, a YA-in-verse called Wild East, is released with Penguin in May 2024.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
June 29, 2022
"People should write about Uriah Rennie because that's what he wants."
Longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize
From a post match interview with Kevin Keegan, manager of Manchester City and ex-manager of Newcastle United (more on that later), on 28 November 2001, after a defeat to Blackburn in the Worthington Cup.
And that is exactly what Ashley Hickson-Lovence has done is this novel, a fictionalisation (but one written with the knowledge of, and interviews with, the subject) of the career of Uriah Rennie, the first black referee in the top flight, one told in a highly effective style.
It's great to read a book that focuses on that much criticised but highly competent participant in the game, the referee, since typically of the 23 people on the pitch they make the least mistakes. As the fictional Uriah comments when he is the target of another manager: You could easily come out, post-match, and start slating players for missing a sitter or splaying a pass out of touch, but you always manage to hold your tongue.
And Rennie's race adds both to the difficulties he faces on the way up and to the focus on his on field activities, particularly his alleged mistakes:
Unlike an away fan lying low in the home end, you can't hide your true colours, you're the only black referee in professional English football, you stick out like a sore thumb. They say the best referee is one you don't really see, but everyone notices you, Uri, you're hard to miss.
The novel opens with what was supposed to be Uriah Rennie's first top flight game on 13 August 1997 at Pride Park, a double milestone as also the first game Derby County were to play in their new ground. But the game, against Wimbledon, was to end prematurely and disappointingly, indeed doesn't officially exist in the record books, due to a (genuine, not betting syndicate induced) floodlight failure
The Wimbledon manager, Joe Kinnear, asks what the plan is. The Derby manager, Jim Smith, asks what the plan is. You're expected to know all the answers.
The referee is all things to the players and managers, the wearer of many hats: the police officer, the parent, the teaches the therapist, the social worker, the confidant, the nurse; judge, jury and bloody executioner.
The next chapter takes us back to Uri's origins in Jamaica in 1972, and then as he moves from there, to follow his parents who moved earlier, to the Wybourn area of Sheffield, where his interest in sport develops into an interest in refereeing, and his desire for order finds him attracted, unusally for his community, to a job in the police. The novel covers his rise through the ranks as an amateur referee, and his role as a magistrate, largely by inference and allusion. The main focus is on his career in the top flight, as he turns professional, including his demotion from the top flight after two seasons in 1999, and his return becoming a FIFA official in 2000 and one of the inaugral members of the Select Group of top referees in 2001.
One running storyline is Rennie's desire to reach the pinnacle of a domestic career - refereering a FA Cup Final.
Another is his run-ins with Newcastle United fans and players, Alan Shearer in particular, starting with Rennie being the first referee to send him off; the trigger offence relatively innocuous but the second yellow awarded for persistent fouling and use of the elbow when backing into opposing defenders, something of a Shearer trademark and an offence the FA had instructed referees to crack down on, Rennie feeling he had no choice but to enforce the rules in the opening game of the season (common refrains in the novel are "You saw what you saw" and "Rules are rules").
A video of the red card
Newspaper coverage 20 years later including supporting remarks from the fourth official, the top-flight referee Jeff Winter, and from Villa player Ian Taylor, whose bemused reaction to the sending off added to the theory that Rennie had a personal vendetta for Shearer. As Taylor explains:
Shearer's comments on a later incident are also covered in the novel, which led him to accuse Rennie of having a personal vendetta against him.
The novel is told in the present-tense and second-person, a style that works very effectively albeit may not work for all readers, and owes an acknowledged debt to David Peace and his Red or Dead and The Damned Utd, including the meticulous cataloguing of fixtures with dates, teamsheets, scores and yellow/red card counts (albeit not to Peace's obsessive level). The book is highly evocative of this era of early Premier League football: Rennie refereed, and was therefore a close observer of the debut of Christiano Ronaldo in England, Jermaine Pennant's hat-trick whose potential was ultimately unfulfilled, a teenage Rooney's wondergoal against Arsenal, and the last game played at Highbury. And then there are incidents where Rennie was more central such as Jason Crowe's dismissal 33 seconds in to his debut (the book mistakenly implies though this was 33 seconds from the start of the game) and an incident when Rennie manhandled Roy Keane away from an incident with Jason McAteer, with Hickson-Lovence making creative use of social-media comments from fans at the time (taken from comments on the BBC sports talk site).
And the novel finishes with Rennie's after-career including his brief appearance on a rather bizarre and short-lived game show, as well as his work in the community, the latter illustrated by another collage of social media comments, this time much more appreciative.
Recommended, particularly to football fans, a book guaranteed to send you down memory lane and Google searches, carefully researched and respectfully presented but also of very high literary quality.
Interview with the author
Interview with the real-life Uriah Rennie
Key references per the author:
• Alan Shearer: Fifty Defining Fixtures by Tony Matthews (2016)
• Wybourn Black: Life on the Wrong Side of Town by Julian Antonio McKenzie (2012)
• The Man in the Middle by Howard Webb (2016)
• Who's the Bastard in the Black by Jeff Winter (2006)
Longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize
From a post match interview with Kevin Keegan, manager of Manchester City and ex-manager of Newcastle United (more on that later), on 28 November 2001, after a defeat to Blackburn in the Worthington Cup.
And that is exactly what Ashley Hickson-Lovence has done is this novel, a fictionalisation (but one written with the knowledge of, and interviews with, the subject) of the career of Uriah Rennie, the first black referee in the top flight, one told in a highly effective style.
It's great to read a book that focuses on that much criticised but highly competent participant in the game, the referee, since typically of the 23 people on the pitch they make the least mistakes. As the fictional Uriah comments when he is the target of another manager: You could easily come out, post-match, and start slating players for missing a sitter or splaying a pass out of touch, but you always manage to hold your tongue.
And Rennie's race adds both to the difficulties he faces on the way up and to the focus on his on field activities, particularly his alleged mistakes:
Unlike an away fan lying low in the home end, you can't hide your true colours, you're the only black referee in professional English football, you stick out like a sore thumb. They say the best referee is one you don't really see, but everyone notices you, Uri, you're hard to miss.
The novel opens with what was supposed to be Uriah Rennie's first top flight game on 13 August 1997 at Pride Park, a double milestone as also the first game Derby County were to play in their new ground. But the game, against Wimbledon, was to end prematurely and disappointingly, indeed doesn't officially exist in the record books, due to a (genuine, not betting syndicate induced) floodlight failure
The Wimbledon manager, Joe Kinnear, asks what the plan is. The Derby manager, Jim Smith, asks what the plan is. You're expected to know all the answers.
The referee is all things to the players and managers, the wearer of many hats: the police officer, the parent, the teaches the therapist, the social worker, the confidant, the nurse; judge, jury and bloody executioner.
The next chapter takes us back to Uri's origins in Jamaica in 1972, and then as he moves from there, to follow his parents who moved earlier, to the Wybourn area of Sheffield, where his interest in sport develops into an interest in refereeing, and his desire for order finds him attracted, unusally for his community, to a job in the police. The novel covers his rise through the ranks as an amateur referee, and his role as a magistrate, largely by inference and allusion. The main focus is on his career in the top flight, as he turns professional, including his demotion from the top flight after two seasons in 1999, and his return becoming a FIFA official in 2000 and one of the inaugral members of the Select Group of top referees in 2001.
One running storyline is Rennie's desire to reach the pinnacle of a domestic career - refereering a FA Cup Final.
Another is his run-ins with Newcastle United fans and players, Alan Shearer in particular, starting with Rennie being the first referee to send him off; the trigger offence relatively innocuous but the second yellow awarded for persistent fouling and use of the elbow when backing into opposing defenders, something of a Shearer trademark and an offence the FA had instructed referees to crack down on, Rennie feeling he had no choice but to enforce the rules in the opening game of the season (common refrains in the novel are "You saw what you saw" and "Rules are rules").
A video of the red card
Newspaper coverage 20 years later including supporting remarks from the fourth official, the top-flight referee Jeff Winter, and from Villa player Ian Taylor, whose bemused reaction to the sending off added to the theory that Rennie had a personal vendetta for Shearer. As Taylor explains:
We were playing Shearer and Colin Calderwood was playing centre back for us and Shearer's got this thing where he was backing into Colin all the time. He was committing fouls every time the ball was coming up to him and to be fair to Uriah Rennie he was spotting these fouls. It just got to a point where he thought, 'I'm gonna put a stop to this' because he kept elbowing Colin and fouling him and wot not. Uriah just suddenly gave him a red card and I thought it was hilarious because who in their right mind would send off the England centre forward for persistent fouling at home, at St James' Park, with a baying Newcastle crowd? To be fair to him, he did and I just thought, yeah, crazy, mad. It was something you didn't really get sent off for in those days so fair play to him.
Shearer's comments on a later incident are also covered in the novel, which led him to accuse Rennie of having a personal vendetta against him.
The novel is told in the present-tense and second-person, a style that works very effectively albeit may not work for all readers, and owes an acknowledged debt to David Peace and his Red or Dead and The Damned Utd, including the meticulous cataloguing of fixtures with dates, teamsheets, scores and yellow/red card counts (albeit not to Peace's obsessive level). The book is highly evocative of this era of early Premier League football: Rennie refereed, and was therefore a close observer of the debut of Christiano Ronaldo in England, Jermaine Pennant's hat-trick whose potential was ultimately unfulfilled, a teenage Rooney's wondergoal against Arsenal, and the last game played at Highbury. And then there are incidents where Rennie was more central such as Jason Crowe's dismissal 33 seconds in to his debut (the book mistakenly implies though this was 33 seconds from the start of the game) and an incident when Rennie manhandled Roy Keane away from an incident with Jason McAteer, with Hickson-Lovence making creative use of social-media comments from fans at the time (taken from comments on the BBC sports talk site).
And the novel finishes with Rennie's after-career including his brief appearance on a rather bizarre and short-lived game show, as well as his work in the community, the latter illustrated by another collage of social media comments, this time much more appreciative.
Recommended, particularly to football fans, a book guaranteed to send you down memory lane and Google searches, carefully researched and respectfully presented but also of very high literary quality.
Interview with the author
Interview with the real-life Uriah Rennie
Key references per the author:
• Alan Shearer: Fifty Defining Fixtures by Tony Matthews (2016)
• Wybourn Black: Life on the Wrong Side of Town by Julian Antonio McKenzie (2012)
• The Man in the Middle by Howard Webb (2016)
• Who's the Bastard in the Black by Jeff Winter (2006)
April 19, 2022
Your Show is a stupendously original take on the sporting memoir. An autobiography-as-fiction, it tells the story of the Premier League's first black referee, Uriah Rennie.
It weaves Rennie's story from humble beginnings in Jamaica, to a working class upbringing in Sheffield and on through the lower leagues to the top of his profession. It is a tale of hard work, determination and devotion. It is also a story of race and occasionally of racism.
For anyone who followed football in the late 90s and early 2000s, it is a wonderful, nostalgic trip down memory lane.
It should set a new standard for what is possible not only in sports writing but in memoir.
It weaves Rennie's story from humble beginnings in Jamaica, to a working class upbringing in Sheffield and on through the lower leagues to the top of his profession. It is a tale of hard work, determination and devotion. It is also a story of race and occasionally of racism.
For anyone who followed football in the late 90s and early 2000s, it is a wonderful, nostalgic trip down memory lane.
It should set a new standard for what is possible not only in sports writing but in memoir.
April 21, 2023
As a fan of football and an ever bigger fan of second person narration, it's no surprise that I really enjoyed this book.
I knew the name Uriah Rennie but truth be told I didn't know much about him at all until I began this novel. Ashley immediately brings you into Uri's world and once you step in you don't want to leave. The desire to referee the FA cup final is the ultimate aim and it feels crushing when Uri isn't able to live that dream but there's always this appreciation for being able to referee at the highest level possible.
This is such a creative way to tell someone's story with the novel sliding into prose poetry effortlessly without taking me out of the story at all.
I knew the name Uriah Rennie but truth be told I didn't know much about him at all until I began this novel. Ashley immediately brings you into Uri's world and once you step in you don't want to leave. The desire to referee the FA cup final is the ultimate aim and it feels crushing when Uri isn't able to live that dream but there's always this appreciation for being able to referee at the highest level possible.
This is such a creative way to tell someone's story with the novel sliding into prose poetry effortlessly without taking me out of the story at all.
May 11, 2022
Great insight into Uriah Rennie’s life and his dream of refereeing the FA Cup Final! It seems like the author spent hours with Mr Rennie to get such an insight and a comprehensive look of his life. Really well written and felt like I was on the pitch with the players, regularly stopped chapters to go back and watch some classic moments of the Premier League past. Not to mention all the social commentary of being a black referee in England, something very rare and still is today! Thoroughly recommend.
April 2, 2022
I thought this was a fantastic and innovative novel, turning the life of Uriah Rennie, the only black Premier League referee, into a compelling, poetic fictionalised novel. The prose is razor sharp much like Hickson-Lovence’s previous novel The 392. It’s told using the the second person “you” which places the reader firmly in the centre circle. Whether or not you like football, it’s hard not to feel enthralled by the character of Rennie and the unique and challenging perspective both he and the reader find themselves experiencing. Highly recommended.
December 5, 2023
Such a cool rhythm to this book! Hickson-Lovence has a beautiful grasp on the poetry of movement and speech and thought, and it all comes out in this incredible ode to a man and a game and everything both can be.
Uri Rennie was, and I believe remains, the first and only black, Premier League referee in history, and here we have the story of his youth, his rise, his career, and his legacy as the man in the middle of one of the biggest stages on earth. Fictionalized, but feeling true to the spirit of the man, Your Show is for those who love football, who love poetry, and who love portraits of fascinating characters.
Uri Rennie was, and I believe remains, the first and only black, Premier League referee in history, and here we have the story of his youth, his rise, his career, and his legacy as the man in the middle of one of the biggest stages on earth. Fictionalized, but feeling true to the spirit of the man, Your Show is for those who love football, who love poetry, and who love portraits of fascinating characters.
October 14, 2022
3.5!!
I love what this book is trying to do, upending the memoir to create an elastic, poetic narrative that combines novelistic thrill with the story of a real person - however I found it to be a little too repetitive. As someone not enormously interested in football, the many game scenes felt exhausting, and retread similar “rules are rules, I am not biased” ground - overall I really enjoyed this, and I will give it another go when I’ve familiarised myself with offside rules a bit more
I love what this book is trying to do, upending the memoir to create an elastic, poetic narrative that combines novelistic thrill with the story of a real person - however I found it to be a little too repetitive. As someone not enormously interested in football, the many game scenes felt exhausting, and retread similar “rules are rules, I am not biased” ground - overall I really enjoyed this, and I will give it another go when I’ve familiarised myself with offside rules a bit more
May 23, 2022
A really original novel, that gets inside Uriah Rennie’s head on his journey to the top and draws a vivid portrait of the man. It was fascinating to have a referee at the centre of the story, and for it to be framed around their own experiences, on and off the field. Rennie’s story in particular, from Jamaica to the Premier League (along with some of the challenges he faced) is an absorbing one. Poetically written, it reminded me in style of David Peace’s The Damned United - fans of that will love this. I enjoyed it greatly.
January 30, 2022
Lyrical and inventive, ‘Your Show’ by Ashley Hickson-Lovence is a ‘memoir as fiction’ of Uriah Rennie, the first black Premier League referee. I really liked this - which says quite a lot coming from this extremely indifferent sports player and deeply sporadic football watcher!
Told in short stanzas of 2nd person narrative, this unusual little gem of a novel draws you in, places you in the middle, directly in the midst of the action, to experience it firsthand.
Capturing both the repetition and uniqueness of each match, the sights, smells, sounds of each ground, Hickson-Lovence layers his narrative with dance-like wordplay and builds a captivating picture of the man in the middle; Uriah Rennie. Complex and driven, born in Jamaica, raised in Sheffield. Ambition and fire in his belly.
Rennie is a man defined by his job, by his decisions on the pitch, every action scrutinised, often vilified and despised by press and fans alike. Yet, what we see is a man with utter surety and conviction, a desire to be the best, passionate, fair-minded and determined to make his mark.
Surprisingly exciting, immediate, poetic yet grounded; this novel of football and fouls, superstars and Sunday players, of red cards, race, masculinity and ambition made for an fascinating read. One to watch.
Told in short stanzas of 2nd person narrative, this unusual little gem of a novel draws you in, places you in the middle, directly in the midst of the action, to experience it firsthand.
Capturing both the repetition and uniqueness of each match, the sights, smells, sounds of each ground, Hickson-Lovence layers his narrative with dance-like wordplay and builds a captivating picture of the man in the middle; Uriah Rennie. Complex and driven, born in Jamaica, raised in Sheffield. Ambition and fire in his belly.
Rennie is a man defined by his job, by his decisions on the pitch, every action scrutinised, often vilified and despised by press and fans alike. Yet, what we see is a man with utter surety and conviction, a desire to be the best, passionate, fair-minded and determined to make his mark.
Surprisingly exciting, immediate, poetic yet grounded; this novel of football and fouls, superstars and Sunday players, of red cards, race, masculinity and ambition made for an fascinating read. One to watch.
October 1, 2023
What a missed opportunity this book was. A good idea, telling the life of an English football referee in the form of a novel, the potential is huge for personal insight, high drama and wonderful stories.
What we get instead is a long series of match reports told in a staccato style that gets old quickly. It’s halfway through the book before we find out that he’s married and has two kids, and somewhere in there he works during the week as a magistrate. Both of those dealt with in a single line. Another line reveals he’s a devout Christian. And other than that all we hear over and over is I’m just applying the laws of the game. No inner life, big conflicts flicked off like an annoying fly, in fact very little interaction with other humans not wearing uniforms and yelling at him.
Even if we go with the fact that the book will be all about the matches, you could be forgiven for not knowing till well into the book that there are four officials in a referee crew. And my experience as a referee is that that crew can be amazing and exasperating often on the same night. How did he manage the emotions after a match, particularly those with controversial decisions. Precious little. None of that here.
So I guess the field is still wide open for the referee novel.
What we get instead is a long series of match reports told in a staccato style that gets old quickly. It’s halfway through the book before we find out that he’s married and has two kids, and somewhere in there he works during the week as a magistrate. Both of those dealt with in a single line. Another line reveals he’s a devout Christian. And other than that all we hear over and over is I’m just applying the laws of the game. No inner life, big conflicts flicked off like an annoying fly, in fact very little interaction with other humans not wearing uniforms and yelling at him.
Even if we go with the fact that the book will be all about the matches, you could be forgiven for not knowing till well into the book that there are four officials in a referee crew. And my experience as a referee is that that crew can be amazing and exasperating often on the same night. How did he manage the emotions after a match, particularly those with controversial decisions. Precious little. None of that here.
So I guess the field is still wide open for the referee novel.
September 3, 2023
An interesting story about the life of Uriah Rennie, the first black premier league referee. Rennie came to the UK with his younger sister from Jamaica, age 11, where he was reunited with his parents and their children born in Britain. This was Sheffield in the early 1970s, and the book contrasts the drainers with the colour of the carribean.
The first section juxtaposes Rennie's early life with the start of his refereeing career, and I enjoyed the early portrait of an intriguing and proud man.
The second part is the tale of his refereeing career where he is in the centre of the top league of British football where he provokes the anger of players and fans alike, perhaps most vividly with his encounters with Alan shearer. The question is obvious: Does Rennie provoke this because of his self-belief that he is the centre of the show, or is it racism at a black man in the middle.
The book ends with his life after football when he is involved in significant charity work.
This is an interesting story well told from the 1st person perspective. My only slight fault is that I found little out about Rennie's personal life but overall a good piece of writing.
The first section juxtaposes Rennie's early life with the start of his refereeing career, and I enjoyed the early portrait of an intriguing and proud man.
The second part is the tale of his refereeing career where he is in the centre of the top league of British football where he provokes the anger of players and fans alike, perhaps most vividly with his encounters with Alan shearer. The question is obvious: Does Rennie provoke this because of his self-belief that he is the centre of the show, or is it racism at a black man in the middle.
The book ends with his life after football when he is involved in significant charity work.
This is an interesting story well told from the 1st person perspective. My only slight fault is that I found little out about Rennie's personal life but overall a good piece of writing.
October 18, 2025
Your Show by Ashley Hickson-Lovence
Ashley Hickson-Lovence delivers a powerful and poetic tribute to the art of football refereeing in Show. Written in his signature lyrical style, this novel-in-verse follows a young man chasing his dream of becoming a top-level referee , blending rhythm, heart, and hope in every line.
What makes Show special is how it captures both the grit and grace of the game, not from the players’ perspective, but from the one in the middle, holding the whistle. It’s about ambition, identity, and belonging, and Hickson-Lovence writes with such musicality that every page feels like a performance.
The round man in question is Uriah Rennie, a former English football referee, best known for being the first Black referee to officiate in the Premier League.
Beautifully written
Emotionally resonant
Perfect for fans of verse novels and sports stories alike
If you loved The 392 or enjoy books that blur poetry and prose, Show is a must-read.
Ashley Hickson-Lovence delivers a powerful and poetic tribute to the art of football refereeing in Show. Written in his signature lyrical style, this novel-in-verse follows a young man chasing his dream of becoming a top-level referee , blending rhythm, heart, and hope in every line.
What makes Show special is how it captures both the grit and grace of the game, not from the players’ perspective, but from the one in the middle, holding the whistle. It’s about ambition, identity, and belonging, and Hickson-Lovence writes with such musicality that every page feels like a performance.
The round man in question is Uriah Rennie, a former English football referee, best known for being the first Black referee to officiate in the Premier League.
Beautifully written
Emotionally resonant
Perfect for fans of verse novels and sports stories alike
If you loved The 392 or enjoy books that blur poetry and prose, Show is a must-read.
August 28, 2022
Really enjoyed reading this , it is the story of Uriah Rennie , the first ( and amazingly ) the only Black referee to have been in the Premier league top flight
Told in the second person , the author goes through the trials of being a ref , the Villain of the Piece .
Having been a ref myself , i know how hard it is to make the right call , and still have people screaming blue murder at you , make an error , let it run through your mind , ruin your weekend
Would love to see an autobiography in his own words , but this is a good compromise
Told in the second person , the author goes through the trials of being a ref , the Villain of the Piece .
Having been a ref myself , i know how hard it is to make the right call , and still have people screaming blue murder at you , make an error , let it run through your mind , ruin your weekend
Would love to see an autobiography in his own words , but this is a good compromise
August 8, 2022
'Your Show' made me feel as though I was right there with Uriah Rennie, following his ups and downs, his flaws, his desires, his ambitions. Ashley Hickson Lovence writes with such poetry, making a subject that I thought wasn't really my usual go-to subject into something I could not stop reading. I loved the style, the narrative voice, the way character built and built with so many layers. I highly recommend this to everyone, football fans or not. 'Your Show' deserves huge success.
September 15, 2022
Compelling, stylish and surprisingly poignant, this uniquely voiced novel tells the story of Uriah Rennie, the premier league's first black referee, and his dream of overseeing an FA cup final. Hickson-Lovence's use of the second person is a brilliant choice, enhancing and highlighting the urgent, dogged determination of his subject. This is the author's second novel after his excellent debut, The 392, which I loved - what a masterclass in voice that was - I look forward to what he does next.
December 11, 2022
Well written in an almost poetic style meaning that reading all the match scenes is a breeze. It seems as though Rennie is too private a person to really share who he is as a person, with the novel just being about who he is as a referee, which is a bit of a shame.
Interestingly, all three novels by black British men I’ve read this year have used second person pronouns (this one, Okwonga, Nelson), I wonder if anyone has written about this?
Interestingly, all three novels by black British men I’ve read this year have used second person pronouns (this one, Okwonga, Nelson), I wonder if anyone has written about this?
March 11, 2023
I appreciated the sentiment but the majority of this was pretty smart, just various commentaries on football matches that didn’t offer all that much insight. It would have been nice to have a bit more material from his background, too
However, I flew through it and didn’t really get bored until at least over half way through. The ending was nice and all
However, I flew through it and didn’t really get bored until at least over half way through. The ending was nice and all
March 9, 2023
Wonderful prose. I absolutely loved this novel from start to finish. Brilliant sports writing combined with psychological insight - for anyone who loves football, stories about drive, ambition, masculinity.
Read
June 21, 2022sped through this, very insightful and thoughtful, captures a love of football from such a unique, brilliant perspective
July 16, 2022
As a football fan I can't help but praise this story. Listened to an audibook. Absolutely brilliant 👏
July 25, 2022
not as good as the 392, this one is really for football fans but I like his style.
November 1, 2023
Nice read. Always like reading a sports book in an original format.
June 19, 2024
Really interesting structure and very emotionally resonant.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews