Member IanPlenderleith

I read fiction from all eras, both novels and short stories, and I will defend the latter form of fiction to its death (or until my own, whichever comes first). I also read a lot of non-fiction history books, with a particular fascination for Africa, World War Two, and British and US social history. My indulgence is music books - especially biographies or autobiographies from anyone involved in the US/UK post-punk scene in the late 70s and the 1980s. Soccer books? Sometimes, but not so much - too close to feeling like work.

I am a freelance football (soccer) writer who has published two books about the game - the first, 'For Whom The Ball Rolls' (Orion, 2001) was a collection of short fiction for adults, with stories set in a soccer milieu, but not necessarily 'about' soccer, as such. The second is more like a piece of extended historical journalism - 'Rock n Roll Soccer: The Short Life and Fast Times of the North American Soccer League (Thomas Dunne, September 2015) covers the wild-west NASL that peaked in the 70s, and which despite its failure had a lasting influence worldwide on the modern, commercialised game. I have just moved to Germany after living in the US for the past 16 years.