Perfect Pitch: Home Ground

by Simon Kuper

Book by

Genres: Football

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Simon Kuper is a journalist for the Financial Times in England. He was born in Uganda of South African parents and moved to the Netherlands as a child. He studied History and German at Oxford University, and attended Harvard University as a Kennedy Scholar. He has written for The Times, Observer, Guardian and Le Monde, and also writes regularly for the Spectator and Dutch newspapers.

Reviews

[Ipswichblade · Rating 2 out of 5]

A selection of football stories and essays a bit hit and miss

[Dave Carr · Rating 2 out of 5]

More miss than hit. Some interesting stories in there but mostly rubbish.

[Football Writer Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let's just say it's more about the intellect than the passion! It seems the writers are trying to outdo each other in terms of who can write about football in the most convoluted way. But a good read, though.

[Richard Olney · Rating 3 out of 5]

My copy of this came free with a magazine so may not be the full edition. It's a selection of essays and short stories about football and footballers, compiled and perhaps written around the end of the Euro '96 championships in England. Football was then changing from something most people were interested in passionately to something which, writing 20 years on, it seems compulsory to be interested in. Some would say the formation of the Premier League brought football out of its niche into popular consciousness, i think Euro '96 had more to do with it.

I particularly enjoyed the essay from the Cardiff City fan, almost anything Jim White writes is worth reading and the use of a football team to show the stigma around mental illness was interesting and smart.