Brian Glanville
Encyclopedia
Brian Lester Glanville is a leading English
football
writer and novelist.
, where he played football to a high standard. Since then, he has enjoyed a lengthy career, having ghost-written "Cliff Bastin
Remembers", the autobiography of his hero at 19 and a noted critique of the British style of sportswriting in Encounter
magazine in the late fifties, lamenting the lack of depth compared to the American style of Red Smith
, Damon Runyon
or A. J. Liebling
. As a journalist he spent nearly thirty years as a football correspondent for The Sunday Times
, to which he is still a contributor, and has contributed to World Soccer
magazine for over 15 years in print and online; he currently contributes a weekly column to the website covering a range of issues. In the 60s and 70s, Glanville was also a member of the jury which awards the yearly Ballon d'Or France Football
(or European Footballer of the Year
award. In addition has also written for The People
and recently has contributed several obituaries of prominent players to The Guardian
.
In addition, his work has been seen in publications such as Sports Illustrated
and the New Statesman
, and the prominent American Football
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
and Rome
, he wrote regularly for the Italian daily Corriere Dello Sport, as well as occasional pieces for La Stampa
and Corriere della Sera
.
Glanville is noted for taking a critical view of many issues, often in contrast to the typical British sportswriter. For example, since its formation he criticised the Premier League as the "Greed is Good League" and FIFA
president Sepp Blatter
is referred to as 'Sepp (50 ideas a day, 51 bad) Blatter' relating to his comments on women's football and the introduction of the silver goal (see Blatter article for more details).
During the 1960s, Glanville also worked as a writer for the satirical BBC
TV programme That Was The Week That Was
and wrote the screenplay for Goal!, the BAFTA award winning official film of the 1966 World Cup. 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 frequently updated history of the FIFA
tournament.
Away from writing about football, Glanville is a life-long supporter of Arsenal F.C.
From the mid 1960's to the 1980's Brian 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), 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 playing fields, the Chelsea Hospital ground and elsewhere. His novel 'The Rise of Gerry Logan' (1963, 1965) predated the inexorable rise of the ex-professional radio and tv punditry of the 'Saint and Greavsie/Alan Hansen/Andy Gray variety.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
writer and novelist.
Biography
Glanville was educated at Charterhouse SchoolCharterhouse School
Charterhouse School, originally The Hospital of King James and Thomas Sutton in Charterhouse, or more simply Charterhouse or House, is an English collegiate independent boarding school situated at Godalming in Surrey.Founded by Thomas Sutton in London in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian...
, where he played football to a high standard. Since then, he has enjoyed a lengthy career, having ghost-written "Cliff Bastin
Cliff Bastin
Clifford Sydney Bastin was an English football player.Born in Heavitree near Exeter, Bastin started his career at Exeter City, making his debut for the club in 1928, at the age of 16...
Remembers", the autobiography of his hero at 19 and a noted critique of the British style of sportswriting in Encounter
Encounter (magazine)
Encounter was a literary magazine, founded in 1953 by poet Stephen Spender and early neoconservative author Irving Kristol. The magazine ceased publication in 1991...
magazine in the late fifties, lamenting the lack of depth compared to the American style of Red Smith
Red Smith (sportswriter)
For other uses, see: Red Smith Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith was an American sportswriter who rose to become one of America's most widely read sports columnists.-Career:After graduating from Green Bay East High School, site of Packers home games until 1957, Smith moved on to...
, Damon Runyon
Damon Runyon
Alfred Damon Runyon was an American newspaperman and 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 New Yorkers of his generation, a "Damon Runyon character" evoked a distinctive social type from the...
or A. J. Liebling
A. J. Liebling
Abbott Joseph Liebling was an American journalist who was closely associated with The New Yorker from 1935 until his death.-Biography:...
. As a journalist he spent nearly thirty years as a football correspondent for The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times (UK)
The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
, to which he is still a contributor, and has contributed to World Soccer
World Soccer Magazine
World Soccer is an English language football magazine published by IPC Media. It specialises in the international football scene. Its regular contributing writers include Brian Glanville, Sid Lowe and Tim Vickery. World Soccer is a member of the European Sports Magazines , an umbrella group of...
magazine for over 15 years in print and online; he currently contributes a weekly column to the website covering a range of issues. In the 60s and 70s, Glanville was also a member of the jury which awards the yearly Ballon d'Or France Football
France Football
France Football is a French bi-weekly magazine containing football news from all over the world. It's one of the most reputable sports publications in Europe, mostly because of their photographic reports and accurate statistics of the big European Cup matches, and extensive coverage of the European...
(or European Footballer of the Year
European Footballer of the Year
The "", literally translated as "the golden ball" and often referred to as the European Footballer of the Year award, was an annual association football award. It was presented to the player who had been considered to have performed the best over the previous calendar year...
award. In addition has also written for The People
The People
The People, previously known as the Sunday People, is a British tabloid Sunday-only newspaper. The paper was founded on 16 October 1881.It is published by the Trinity Mirror Group.In July 2011 it had an average daily circulation of 806,544....
and recently has contributed several obituaries of prominent players to The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
.
In addition, his work has been seen in publications such as Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
and the New Statesman
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
, and the prominent American Football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
writer Paul Zimmerman
Paul Zimmerman
Paul Lionel Zimmerman is the son of Charles S. Zimmerman and Rose Zimmerman. Zimmerman, also known to readers as "Dr. Z", is an American football sportswriter who wrote for the weekly magazine Sports Illustrated, as well as the magazine's website, SI.com. He is sometimes confused with Paul D...
has called him "the greatest football writer of all time."
He spent much of his career based in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and has been seen as one of the leading authorities on Italian football as a result. Whilst based in both Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
and Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, he wrote regularly for the Italian daily Corriere Dello Sport, as well as occasional pieces for La Stampa
La Stampa
La Stampa is one of the best-known, most influential and most widely sold Italian daily newspapers. Published in Turin, it is distributed in Italy and other European nations. The current owner is the Fiat Group.-History:...
and Corriere della Sera
Corriere della Sera
The Corriere della Sera is an Italian daily newspaper, published in Milan.It is among the oldest and most reputable Italian newspapers. Its main rivals are Rome's La Repubblica and Turin's La Stampa.- History :...
.
Glanville is noted for taking a critical view of many issues, often in contrast to the typical British sportswriter. For example, since its formation he criticised the Premier League as the "Greed is Good League" and FIFA
FIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association , commonly known by the acronym FIFA , is the international governing body of :association football, futsal and beach football. Its headquarters are located in Zurich, Switzerland, and its president is Sepp Blatter, who is in his fourth...
president Sepp Blatter
Sepp Blatter
Joseph S. Blatter , commonly known as Sepp Blatter, is a Swiss football administrator, who serves as the 8th and current President of FIFA . He was elected on 8 June 1998, succeeding João Havelange. He was re-elected as President in 2002, 2007, and 2011...
is referred to as 'Sepp (50 ideas a day, 51 bad) Blatter' relating to his comments on women's football and the introduction of the silver goal (see Blatter article for more details).
During the 1960s, Glanville also worked as a writer for the satirical BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
TV programme That Was The Week That Was
That Was The Week That Was
That Was The Week That Was, also known as TW3, is a satirical television comedy programme that was shown on BBC Television in 1962 and 1963. It was devised, produced and directed by Ned Sherrin and presented by David Frost...
and wrote the screenplay for Goal!, the BAFTA award winning official film of the 1966 World Cup. 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
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...
, a frequently updated history of the FIFA
FIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association , commonly known by the acronym FIFA , is the international governing body of :association football, futsal and beach football. Its headquarters are located in Zurich, Switzerland, and its president is Sepp Blatter, who is in his fourth...
tournament.
Away from writing about football, Glanville is a life-long supporter of Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal F.C.
Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...
From the mid 1960's to the 1980's Brian 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), 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 playing fields, the Chelsea Hospital ground and elsewhere. His novel 'The Rise of Gerry Logan' (1963, 1965) predated the inexorable rise of the ex-professional radio and tv punditry of the 'Saint and Greavsie/Alan Hansen/Andy Gray variety.
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; NewYork, 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 andWarburg, 1969.
- A Cry of Crickets - London, Secker and Warburg, and New York, Coward McCann, 1970.
- The Financiers - London, Secker and Warburg, 1972; as Money Is Love, New York, Doubleday, 1972.
- The Comic - London, Secker and Warburg, 1974; New York, Stein andDay, 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 andWarburg, 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 GarlandPatrick Garlandthumb|right|200pxPatrick Garland is a British actor, writer, and director.Garland started Poetry International in 1963 with Ted Hughes and Charles Osborne. He was a director and producer for the BBC's Music and Arts Department , and worked on its Monitor series...
and Roy HuddRoy HuddRoy Hudd, OBE is an English comedian, actor, radio host and author, and an authority on the history of music hall entertainment.- Early life :...
(produced Chichester, Sussex, 1981; London, 1982).
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 PressQueen Anne PressThe Queen Anne Press is a small private press. It was created in 1951 by Lord Kemsley, proprietor of the Sunday Times, to publish the works of comtemporary authors. In 1952, as a wedding present to his then Foreign Editor, Kemsley made Ian Fleming its managing director. The press concentrated on...
, 1974. - People in Sport, London, Secker and Warburg, 1967.
- Soccer: A History of the Game, Its Players, and Its Strategy, NewYork, 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.
- Soccer 76, London, 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.