Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
The cover is Gazza crying, which is now rather clichéd, but then it was an icon of the change in attitude towards football and men, and how emotional they can be about football.
All Played Out, Pete Davies.
This is about the 1990 World Cup and is one man’s story of going as a fan to Italia 90 and it’s another example of the new emotional writing about football. The cover is Gazza crying, which is now rather clichéd, but then it was an icon of the change in attitude towards football and men and how emotional they can be about football – the sheer emotional experience of being there. England played Germany in the semi-final in an epic game and England went out on penalties. There’s no embarrassment about how emotional a man can feel about this and it goes with Nick’s book as part of the sea change in how men and football were being portrayed.
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Writer, comedian and football fan David Baddiel says football writing changed in the 1990s, as men became more openly emotional about the game and about life in general – a sea change epitomised by Paul Gascoigne’s tears at Italia 90 and captured in two iconic British books – Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch and Pete Davies’s All Played Out. Baddiel and Skinner are doing a series of 2010 World Cup podcasts for Absolute Radio.
