Jon Culley, Sports Bookshelf
“To stand out from the crowd still requires something special. Anthony Clavane has pulled it off with Promised Land.”
Dominic Sandbrook and Anthony Clavane on football and the Seventies
Podcast of James Brown’s interview with Anthony Clavane for Random House.
PODCAST: James Brown Interview
Interview Extract
The Damned Utd v The Promised Land: David Peace in conversation with Anthony Clavane
AC: I wanted to be very honest and open about the dark side of Leeds. During the late 70s and 80s there was this dark side which made me pull away from the club, from the city. There comes a time in a love affair when you walk away, then you go back again. But let’s not pretend that there wasn’t a really nasty side to the city at the time. The Service Crew represented all that was bad in football, in Leeds United, and I hated that period when hooliganism and racism ruled the roost and I wanted to write about that.
I write about being chinned during a match, but if I was black I would have had coins thrown at me. The NF paper was sold outside the ground. So I wanted to look at the good – the great – of Leeds; but also the bad and the ugly.
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Review: Red Ladder
“An absolute winner. Leeds fans will flock to buy it. As a life-long Liverpool fan I have hated Leeds as much as I have hated Man U – but to read their story has really opened my eyes. I could not put the book down – I loved it. I’m a Red and my son is also – but we both were fascinated by the whole Leeds story and the agony of being a Leeds fan.”
Rod Dixon, director of Red Ladder
Review: Caryl Phillips
“I found it a riveting, and ultimately very moving book. A great tribute to Anthony Clavane’s family, to the city of Leeds, to the Jewish community of Leeds, to the writers of Leeds, and to LUFC. Not an easy juggling act to pull off, but he does so eloquently. I truly hope this book gets the national attention it deserves. This is a really major piece of work about the city with all its complex, frustrating, nonsense thrown into the mix.”
Caryl Phillips, author of A Distant Shore