Best books about football

A frustrating opening performance, an impressive display, the build up of hope and expectation, the capitulation in the quarters on penalties. We all know the script for England's World Cup run has already been written. So when events in South Africa get too much open a book, there will be more surprises in store. Read on for the GWG's shortlist of the best books about football.

1. The Damned Utd (2007)

David Peace's finest hour. Peace's fictionalised take on Brian Clough's failure at Leeds Utd makes of the great manager a Shakespearean tragic hero, fatally flawed by a sublime hubris that took him to glorious heights of impossible triumph but brought him crashing down. www.amazon.co.uk

2. Fever Pitch (1992)

The book that made Nick Hornby. Witty, touching and affecting, Hornby's book helped to humanise football after a terrible decade of hooliganism and tragedy. Hornby may just have planned to documenate his own obsession with Arsenal, but he helped make the game fashionable as the Premiership was launched and SKY began its dominance of live coverage. www.amazon.co.uk

3. A Season With Verona (2003)

Novelist and critic Tim Parks is an excellent writer, intelligent, elegant and always interesting. His story of his obsession with Verona examines the cultural significance of a game which, as Bill Shankly pointed out is more important that life or death. It also reveals plenty about the Italian soul. www.amazon.co.uk

4. Bestie (1999)

Joe Lovejoy's biography of George Best offers compelling treatment of Belfast's genius. Lovely conveys the magic of the Man Utd winger, who had the world at his feet in his pomp in the late 60s. The subsequent decline into alcoholism, the early retirement, and the wandering of the 1970s that took Best from Craven Cottage to the US, makes for desperately sad reading. www.amazon.co.uk

5. Provided You Don't Kiss Me (2007)

Duncan Hamilton was a young reporter on the Nottingham Post when Brian Clough took him under his inimitable wing. Hamilton spent twenty years following and interviewing Clough and describes the temper, the talent, the drinking in a memoir that entertains, amuses and enthralls. www.amazon.co.uk

6. Brilliant Orange (2000)

The Netherlands: the best team never to win the World Cup. David Winner's book looks at the "neurotic genius of Dutch football", searching for an explanation for how a tiny Northern European country gave the sport such beauty. Winter interviews players past and present about the glorious failures of 1974 and 1978, capturing something of the Dutch flair. www.amazon.co.uk

31 May 2010