COMRADE JIM: The Spy Who Played for Spartak [Hardcover]

Jim Riordan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 5, 2008

Like many working class children growing up in the war, the young Jim Riordan would fantasize his way out of his devastated surroundings with dreams of Wembley and FA Cup glory for his local team, Portsmouth FC. Spartak Moscow, the team he would end up playing for, wasn't even on his radar. Taught Russian and trained as a spy in the same institution that nurtured the likes of Alan Bennett and Michael Frayn, he was posted to Berlin as part of his National Service to listen in on Soviet military communiqués. But, unbeknownst to his seniors, he began mixing with Russian servicemen, mostly through informal kick-abouts, and the passion of these idealistic young men would cultivate his interest in Russian culture, and especially communism, until it blossomed into a full grown love affair. From the shambolic outfit that was the British Communist Party in the 1950s, to Cold War Moscow at its coldest, to his friendship with the Cambridge Five and meetings with Brezhnev and Gregarin, and his eventual debut in front of 50,000 Spartak fans at the Lenin stadium, here is the remarkable true story of the only Englishman to have played—and survived—Russian league soccer; told with grace, humor, and lashings of vodka.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'What is most riveting about this very honest book is that his story is so little known and that he has been able to live his life totally on his own terms, whether under Brezhnev or under Blair.' The Resident

About the Author

Jim Riordan has been a double bassist, hotel porter, railway clerk, barman, postman, unbreakable tea-set salesman, award-winning children's author, spy, and soccer player; and is now professor emeritus in Russian Studies at the University of Surrey.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 223 pages
• Publisher: Fourth Estate; 1st edition (May 5, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0007251149
• ISBN-13: 978-0007251148
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,694,385 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wishful thinking at best..., August 18, 2010

By 

Denis Peskov - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Comrade Jim: The Spy Who Played for Spartak (Paperback)

I was electrified when i just noticed this book and immediately scooped it.
The story seemed so interesting that I couldn't sit still until i passed the book to my English teacher, who was in football business those days (never a pro himself but was through youth squads of 50-s/60-s and therefore retained many connections with the guys who actually made it into the first teams of Moscow based Soviet Premiership clubs). Of course he was an avid football fan and a staunch supporter of preciesely Spartak Moscow.
His immediate reaction after reading this opus was bewilderment. He never encountered any Riordan or Jordanov playing in starting XI or coming in as sub. Moreover factual errors were of extraordinary brazen character. Like pointed out in another review the man confused the venue at which the game took place: Tashkent (now in Uzbekistan) for Moscow which are 1 700 miles apart (according to Google Earth), let alone climatic and geographical differences which are still evident even to a blindman.
This and other glaring inconsistencies forced him to give a call to pro players, then active, and ask for clarification. No one could remember such player. And to conceal such a player would be harder than hide the proverbial needle in a haystack. Just so you know: there were few players of foreign origin (f.e. Spaniards - kids of Spanish Reds - evacuated in the wake of the Spanish Civil War to USSR) in Soviet Championship those years. And everyone remembers their presence nowadays albeit not always their names.
And no one even remebers a Briton, if you don't trust official statistics. Sorry. Nothing personal. But please don't sell a fiction for a real story.
If he was a real player it would be trumpeted all over as triumph of Communist sport's attractiveness over "sweat-extracting" professional sport of "rotting West".

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Alot of Football, May 30, 2010

By 

Hugo Luna "h-train" (Nogales, Arizona) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Comrade Jim: The Spy Who Played for Spartak (Paperback)

Yes, the author played for Spartak and that's about as much as this book mentions football. This is hardly a book about football although it does feature the game in several instances, I would hardly consider this book a "football" book.