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Brian Lester Glanville (born 24 September 1931) is an English
football writer and novelist. He was described by ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' as "the doyen of football writers—arguably the finest football writer of his—or any other—generation," and by American journalist
Paul Zimmerman as "the greatest football writer of all time."
Biography
The son of an Irish Jewish dentist,
Glanville was educated at
Charterhouse School, where he played football to a high standard. He has had a lengthy career, beginning with ghost-writing ''
Cliff Bastin
Clifford Sydney Bastin (14 March 1912 – 4 December 1991) was an English footballer who played as a winger for Exeter City and Arsenal. He also played for the England national team. Bastin is Arsenal's third-highest goalscorer of all time.
C ...
Remembers'', the autobiography of his hero, at 19. A noted critique of the British style of sportswriting in ''
Encounter
Encounter or Encounters may refer to:
Film
*''Encounter'', a 1997 Indian film by Nimmala Shankar
* ''Encounter'' (2013 film), a Bengali film
* ''Encounter'' (2018 film), an American sci-fi film
* ''Encounter'' (2021 film), a British sci-fi film
* ...
'' magazine in the late 1950s lamented the lack of depth compared with the American style of
Red Smith,
Damon Runyon
Alfred Damon Runyon (October 4, 1880 – December 10, 1946) was an American newspaperman and short-story writer.
He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era. To N ...
or
A. J. Liebling. As a journalist he spent nearly 30 years as a football correspondent for ''
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, w ...
'', to which he is still a contributor, and has contributed to ''
World Soccer'' magazine for over 50 years in print and online; he currently contributes a weekly column to the website covering a range of issues. In the 1960s and 1970s, Glanville was a member of the jury which awards the yearly
Ballon d'Or
The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual association football, football award presented by French news magazine ''France Football'' since 1956. Between 2010 and 2015, in an agreement with FIFA, the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Pl ...
France Football
''France Football'' is a French weekly magazine containing football news from all over the world. It is considered to be one of the most reputable sports publications in Europe, mostly because of its photographic reports, in-depth and exclusi ...
(or
European Footballer of the Year
The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual football award presented by French news magazine '' France Football'' since 1956. Between 2010 and 2015, in an agreement with FIFA, the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year (f ...
award). In addition he has written for ''
The People
The ''Sunday People'' is a British tabloid Sunday newspaper. It was founded as ''The People'' on 16 October 1881.
At one point owned by Odhams Press, The ''People'' was acquired along with Odhams by the Mirror Group in 1961, along with the ...
'' and more recently contributed several obituaries of prominent players to ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''.
His work has been seen in publications such as ''
Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...
'' and the ''
New Statesman
The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...
'', and the prominent
American football
American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...
writer
Paul Zimmerman has called him "the greatest football writer of all time."
He spent much of his career based in Italy and has been seen as one of the leading authorities on Italian football as a result. Whilst based in both
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
and
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, he wrote regularly for the Italian daily ''Corriere Dello Sport'', as well as occasional pieces for ''
La Stampa'' and ''
Corriere della Sera''.
During the 1960s, Glanville worked as a writer for the satirical
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
TV programme ''
That Was The Week That Was
''That Was the Week That Was'', informally ''TWTWTW'' or ''TW3'', is a satirical television comedy programme that aired on BBC Television in 1962 and 1963. It was devised, produced, and directed by Ned Sherrin and Jack (aka John) Duncan, and pr ...
'' and wrote the screenplay for ''
Goal!'', the
BAFTA award-winning official film of the
1966 World Cup
The 1966 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in England from 11 July to 30 July 1966. The England national football team defeated West Germany 4-2 in the ...
, to which he also contributed the commentary. As a novelist he has written mostly about football and life in Italy, with his 1956 novel ''Along the Arno'' particularly well received by critics. He has also written ''The Story of the
World Cup
A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...
'', a frequently updated history of the
FIFA tournament.
From the mid-1960s to the 1980s, Glanville organised and ran his own very successful (largely) amateur football team,
Chelsea Casuals, which, depending on the quality of the opposition, comprised a motley collection of actors, artists, radio, TV and newspaper journalists, university graduates and undergraduates (mainly drawn from the
LSE LSE may refer to:
Computing
* LSE (programming language), a computer programming language
* LSE, Latent sector error, a media assessment measure related to the hard disk drive storage technology
* Language-Sensitive Editor, a text editor used ...
), friends (occasionally professional soccer players and from other sports including cricket. Anecdotes in his book of short stories ''The King of Hackney Marshes'' (1965) drew heavily on experiences gained not only from games on the
Hackney Marshes but also at
Wormwood Scrubs
Wormwood Scrubs, known locally as The Scrubs (or simply Scrubs), is an open space in Old Oak Common located in the north-eastern corner of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London. It is the largest open space in the borough, ...
playing fields, the
Chelsea Hospital
The Royal Hospital Chelsea is a retirement home and nursing home for some 300 veterans of the British Army. Founded as an almshouse, the ancient sense of the word "hospital", it is a site located on Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea, London, Che ...
ground and elsewhere. His novel ''The Rise of Gerry Logan'' (1963, 1965) predated the rise of the ex-professional radio and TV punditry of the ''
Saint and Greavsie
''Saint and Greavsie'' was a British television show in which former footballers Ian St John and Jimmy Greaves discussed current football themes such as the day's matches. It ran on ITV from 1985 to 1992.
Format
Englishman Jimmy Greaves and S ...
''/
Alan Hansen/
Andy Gray variety.
Glanville is a lifelong supporter of
Arsenal F.C. He is noted for taking a critical view of many issues, often in contrast to the typical British sportswriter. Since its formation, he has criticised the
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
as the "Greed is Good League" and
FIFA president
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Sepp Blatter is referred to as "Sepp (50 ideas a day, 51 bad) Blatter". Glanville said: "The World Cup has become worse and worse over the years—it is bloated. Whatever Sepp Blatter thinks he knows is only secondary to the money he wants to make." He has also said there are "far too many foreigners in the Premier League" and he criticised the spending of clubs like
Manchester City and
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
as "repugnant".
After covering
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
for many years, Glanville developed relationships with a few of the managers. He stated that
Alf Ramsey could be "very spiky, but in the final analysis I didn't get on badly with him and he gave people access." Glanville also mentioned how he thought
Bobby Robson
Sir Robert William Robson (18 February 1933 – 31 July 2009) was an English footballer and football manager. His career included periods playing for and later managing the England national team and being a UEFA Cup-winning manager at Ipswich ...
was "grotesquely overrated", that he was "a very inadequate manager and he failed so badly in Europe" (a reference to the failure to qualify for
UEFA Euro 1984
The 1984 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in France from 12 to 27 June 1984. It was the seventh UEFA European Championship, a competition held every four years and endorsed by UEFA.
At the time, only eight countries ...
and England's group stage exit from
UEFA Euro 1988
The 1988 UEFA European Football Championship final tournament was held in West Germany from 10 to 25 June 1988. It was the eighth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and supported by UEFA.
The tournament crowned the Nethe ...
), and that nearly reaching the
1990 World Cup
The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second time (the first being ...
final was "down to luck more than judgement."
However, he was effusive in his praise of
Paul Gascoigne in the latter, saying he had displayed "a flair, a superlative technique, a tactical sophistication, seldom matched by an England player since the war."
Bibliography
Novels
*''The Reluctant Dictator'' – London, Laurie, 1952.
*''Henry Sows the Wind'' – London, Secker and Warburg, 1954.
*''Along the Arno'' – London, Secker and Warburg, 1956; New York, Crowell, 1957.
*''The Bankrupts'' – London, Secker and Warburg, and New York, Doubleday, 1958.
*''After Rome, Africa'' – London, Secker and Warburg, 1959.
*''Diamond'' – London, Secker and Warburg, and New York, FarrarStraus, 1962.
*''The Rise of Gerry Logan'' – London, Secker and Warburg, 1963; New York, Delacorte Press, 1965.
*''A Second Home'' – London, Secker and Warburg, 1965; New York, Delacorte Press, 1966.
*''A Roman Marriage'' – London, Joseph, 1966; New York, CowardMcCann, 1967.
*''The Artist Type'' – London, Cape, 1967; New York, Coward McCann, 1968.
*''The Olympian'' – New York, Coward McCann, and London, Secker and Warburg, 1969.
*''A Cry of Crickets'' – London, Secker and Warburg, and New York, Coward McCann, 1970.
*''Goalkeepers are Different'', 1971
*''The Financiers'' – London, Secker and Warburg, 1972; as Money Is Love, New York, Doubleday, 1972.
*''The Thing He Loves'' – London Secker & Warburg, 1974.
*''The Comic'' – London, Secker and Warburg, 1974; New York, Stein and Day, 1975.
*''The Dying of the Light'' – London, Secker and Warburg, 1976.
*''Never Look Back'' – London, Joseph, 1980.
*''Kissing America'' – London, Blond, 1985.
*''The Catacomb'' – London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1988.
*''Dictators'' – London, Smaller Sky Books, 2001.
Short stories
*''A Bad Streak and Other Stories'' – London, Secker and Warburg, 1961.
*''The Director's Wife and Other Stories'' – London, Secker and Warburg, 1963.
*''Goalkeepers Are Crazy: A Collection of Football Stories'' – London, Secker and Warburg, 1964.
*''The King of Hackney Marshes and Other Stories'' – London, Secker and Warburg, 1965.
*''A Betting Man'' – New York, Coward McCann, 1969.
*''Penguin Modern Stories 10, with others'' – London, Penguin, 1972.
*''The Thing He Loves and Other Stories'' – London, Secker and Warburg, 1973.
*''A Bad Lot and Other Stories'' – London, Penguin, 1977.
*''Love Is Not Love and Other Stories'' – London, Blond, 1985.
Plays
* ''Visit to the Villa'' (produced Chichester, Sussex, 1981).
* ''Underneath the Arches'', with
Patrick Garland
Patrick Ewart Garland (10 April 1935 – 19 April 2013) was a British director, writer and actor.
Career
Garland was educated at St Mary's College, Southampton, and St Edmund Hall, Oxford where he studied English and was Literary Editor of Isi ...
and
Roy Hudd (produced Chichester, Sussex, 1981; London, 1982).
Screenplays (documentary)
*''Goal!'', 1967.
Radio plays
*''The Diary'', 1987; ''I Could Have Been King'', 1988.
*Television Documentaries: ''European Centre Forward'', 1963.
Other
*''Cliff Bastin Remembers'', with Cliff Bastin. London, Ettrick Press, 1950.
*''Arsenal Football Club'', London, Convoy, 1952.
*''Soccer Nemesis'', London, Secker and Warburg, 1955.
*''World Cup'', with Jerry Weinstein. London, Hale, 1958.
*''Over the Bar'', with Jack Kelsey. London, Paul, 1958.
*''Soccer round the Globe'', London, Abelard Schuman, 1959.
*''Know about Football'' (for children). London, Blackie, 1963.
*''World Football Handbook'' (annual), London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1964; London, Mayflower, 1966–72; London,
Queen Anne Press, 1974.
*''People in Sport'', London, Secker and Warburg, 1967.
*''Soccer: A History of the Game, Its Players, and Its Strategy'', New York, Crown, 1968; as ''Soccer: A Panorama'', London, Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1969.
*''The Puffin Book of Football'' (for children), London, Penguin, 1970; revised edition, 1984.
*''Goalkeepers Are Different'' (for children), London, Hamish Hamilton, 1971; New York, Crown, 1972.
*''Brian Glanville's Book of World Football'', London, Dragon, 1972.
*''The Sunday Times History of the World Cup'', London, Times Newspapers, 1973; as ''History of the Soccer World Cup'', New York, Macmillan, 1974; revised edition, as ''The History of the World Cup'', London, Faber, 1980, 1984; revised edition, as ''The Story of the World Cup'', London, Faber, 1997.
*''The Sunday Times World Football Handbook 1976'', London, Playfair, Queen Anne Press, (1975?).
*''Target Man'' (for children), London, Macdonald and Jane's, 1978.
*''The Puffin Book of Footballers'', London, Penguin, 1978; revised edition, as ''Brian Glanville's Book of Footballers'', 1982.
*''A Book of Soccer'', New York, Oxford University Press, 1979.
*''Kevin Keegan'' (for children), London, Hamish Hamilton, 1981.
*''The Puffin Book of Tennis'' (for children), London, Penguin, 1981.
*''The Puffin Book of the World Cup'' (for children), London, Penguin, 1984.
*''The British Challenge'' (on the Los Angeles Olympics team), with Kevin Whitney, London, Muller, 1984.
*''Footballers Don't Cry: Selected Writings'', London, Virgin, 1999.
*''Football Memories'', London, Virgin, 1999.
*''Arsenal Stadium History'', London, Hamlyn, 2006.
*''England Managers: The Toughest Job in Football'', London, Headline, 2007.
*Editor, ''Footballer's Who's Who'', London, Ettrick Press, 1951.
*Editor, ''The Footballer's Companion'', London, Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1962.
*Editor, ''The Joy of Football'', London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1986.
References
External links
Glanville's World Soccer column*
Interview with Brian Glanville
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glanville, Brian
1931 births
Living people
English people of Irish-Jewish descent
English people of Jewish descent
English male journalists
20th-century English novelists
English sportswriters
People educated at Charterhouse School
English male novelists
20th-century English male writers