With the largest concentration of professional clubs in Britain, as well as the myriad non-league, women's, disabled, and Sunday teams, London offers a case study for an examination of the current state of British football. What are the issues affecting football in London? Do they have repercussions for all levels of the game? What does the future hold for the national game in the capital as we approach the millennium? Charlie Connelly attempts to answer these questions, as well as showing the reality of a long, hard season on every rung of the football ladder. Humourous yet analytical, the book offers a snapshot of the state of the game as played out on the hundreds of pitches across the capital every day of the season.
Charlie Connelly is a bestselling author and award-winning broadcaster. He is the author of several successful books including 'Attention All Shipping' and 'And Did Those Feet'.
'Attention All Shipping', in which Charlie explores the legacy of the shipping forecast, is one of the biggest selling narrative non-fiction books of the past decade, was a Radio 4 Book of the Week, and in the audio version was voted the second greatest audiobook of all time in a Guardian/Waterstones poll.
'And Did Those Feet...: Walking Through 2000 Years of British History' was also a Radio 4 Book of the Week, read by Martin Freeman.
Having co-presented three series of 'Traveller's Tree' with Fi Glover for BBC Radio 4, Charlie devised and presented the acclaimed 'Noel Coward, The Poet' for the same channel. He has also appeared on numerous radio stations including BBC Radio 2, RTÉ Radio 1, Newstalk 106.2 and BBC Five Live, as well as being a popular presenter on BBC TV's Holiday programme (his first film winning the prestigious Silver Thistle award for international broadcasting).
He has sung Blue Moon of Kentucky live on Uzbek national television with the country's biggest pop star, lectured at the Royal Geographical Society, is an official ambassador for a breakaway Lithuanian republic, was once hounded by the UK national press after being falsely accused of intending to invade Rockall, was presented with an honorary team shirt with his name on by the Liechtenstein national football team and has been chased across the Great Plain by Hungarian gangsters. They thought he was someone else, but fortunately he didn't notice until they were arrested.
A former professional musician, mortuary attendant and once - remarkably - marketing manager for the Complete Works of Lenin in 47 volumes, Charlie was born and raised in London. He now lives in Ireland with a large collection of ukuleles and Charlton Athletic football programmes.
