Customer Reviews
There is more to supporting a football team than football - By: Bantam Dave, 13 Aug 2008 
Starting from the dayin 1965 when his father took him to see Liverpool play at Bolton, Brian Reade has been a Liverpool supporter. In the 43 years since then although he as witnessed many highs - 47 trophies, which supporters of most other clubs can only dream about - but also extreme lowsin the 80's with the tragedies at Heysel & Hillsborough.
The books strongest chapters are regarding these two events & their aftermath. Reade passionately describes the guilt & shame felt by Liverpool supporters after Heyselin 1985 & also the anger felt by these same people after the authorities attempted to make them the scapegoats for the disaster at Hillsborough four years later.
When it comes to football, Brian Reade writes as a Liverpool fan & his views are therefore very biased & unobjective. Whilst this makes some of his recollections entertaining, there were too many times when I, as a Bradford City fan, found it a bit annoying when he moans about 'a bad season' after Liverpool had only finished third or fourthin the league! We should be so lucky.
Making up for this though are the excellent chapters about Reades meeting the charismatic Bill Shankly & a very poignant one where he interviews Bob Paisley just as Alzheimers was starting to take a hold. Also worth reading are the bile filled chapters about ex-Chairman Noel White & Graeme Souness, who Reade concedes was a brilliant player for Liverpool but a lousy manager.
Although I suspect that to obtain maximum enjoyment from this book the reader would have to be a Liverpool supporter but anybody that has followed a football team through good times & bad will be able to empathise with much of it & therefore enjoy it. All except Everton & Manchester United fans, that is.
Great title, Great book !! - By: Red, 15 Jul 2008 
The book is written by journalist & football fan, notin any particular order, with a history of working with the Liverpool Post, & sometimes upsetting people with a biast view!!
True Liverpool fans will remember the inspirational words that often came from Shankly`s lips (god rest his soul),` how if he were a bin man he would be the best bin man ever, & the streets of Liverpool would be the cleanestin the world`. This book talks from the same page as that. Its both a cronicle of the rollercoaster that is football & an inspiational read at the same time, some of the memories will lift you, & some will break your heart, but one thing is for sure, you will be touched by the Authors writing.
Some of the strongest chapters follow the darker momentsin our glorious history & the are truly heart wrenching. He writes with bitterness about the years of Souness as manager, & who can blame him for that!!
As a long term Kopite I eat & sleep football, & read it when I`m not doing one of the other. There have been some great books about Liverpool over the years & this is among them. I read this on holiday with another book set at Anfield. Soft Target by Conrad Jones, is a fictional thriller setin Liverpool, terrorism & football combined it was shocking....but great reading. The new bio by the great god `Rush` is another excellent read, as is `Gangs of Liverpool ` by Maca.
Give this `43 years with the same bird.Liverpudlian Love Affair a read...you wont be dissapointed
