The Damned United by David Peace

[Charlie]

You are an English novelist who lives in Tokyo, where you order every book that has ever been written about footballer and manager Brian Clough (six) or any player who was managed by him (another six), and then you sit down and write an autobiographical novel as if you were Brian Clough, focussing on your days at Derby County and Leeds United.

It may not sound like the best recipe for a book, but the result is one of the best I've ever read about sport, a surprise best selling 'sleeper' that has far outsold most of the over-hyped pseudo-autobiographies of England's World Cup squad.

There have been rumours of a film to be based on this, to be directed by Stephen Frears from a script by David Morgan, the same team that brought us the Queen, with Helen Mirren, and before that, the Deal. But I can't see how they can turn it into a film. Although there is some dialogue in it, so much is written from the point of view of the interior 'voice' of Cloughie, and that's notoriously difficult to reproduce on film. No, it's a book, a very good book, and that's how it will remain.

[Rob Hall]

Hmmm... I'm not so sure. I've been working my way through this book for a couple of weeks, which is surprising because, essentially, it's an easy read. I have had to resist the temptation to leave it unfinished in the hope that it will get better, but I'm still forcing myself to continue with it. I think the problem lies in the way that Peace has structured the book. Without giving too much away, the structure is a big part of the book and, frankly, I don't see that much is gained by having it structured in this way; it may have been helpful to Peace to write it in this way, but it creates a very fragmented reading experience. On the plus side, it is a very close examination of Clough - not the prettiest of pictures, but it's never anything less than convincing in that respect.

[Rob Hall]

OK. Having finished the book, I owe it to somebody somewhere to give it my outright approval. It's a very fine piece of work; a worthy subject; it scores at both a human and a technical level.

Unconstant reader.

[Adam Blake]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1T45V-s6jM