Welcome to Brendan Murphy, author of new release The Game That Would Be King: The Uncharted History of Soccer 800-1800AD
Brendan tells us a little about himself and this book – a facinating guide to the history of soccer through the ages. Intrigued? You should be! Listen to what the cover says:
“As the games sweep across history, the social, religious, and political contexts are threaded throughout, and this book is peppered with news snippets, anecdotes, comedy, and intrigue, which give the centuries life. Crammed with eccentric sports ephemera, untold tales, and unearthed facts, The Game That Would Be King is the most comprehensive work on the early history of ball games ever written.”
Over to Brendan …
“The Game That Would Be King: The Uncharted History of Soccer 800 – 1800 AD runs to 520 pages, contains 2,800 references, took three years to write, and hijacked my passion project, The Prime of Her Death, a Melbourne thriller fusing purgatory and prime numbers. Prior to that, I had written four young adult fantasy novels, a picture book for girls, and co-authored over two book chapters, thirty research papers, and another thirty conference papers and abstracts, all relating to youth mental health. Only at the editing stage of The Game That Would Be King was I able to return to The Prime of Her Death and smash out Hellgate, a regency period screenplay.
So what possessed me to write this challenging scholarly work on the history of ball games? An earlier book holds clues. In 2007, I penned From Sheffield with Love: Celebrating 150 Years of Sheffield FC, the World’s Oldest Football Club. It is the oldest club in any code, including Gaelic football, Australian Rules, rugby union, rugby league, and both American and Canadian football. Singular at inception, the club is privileged with the nickname The Club.
I am a football lover from Sheffield, propelled to the book by a concatenation of events.
The motivation behind From Sheffield with Love is simpler. I am a football lover from Sheffield, propelled to the book by a concatenation of events. There is irony too. Melbourne has been my home for the last twenty-five years; another magnificent sporting city and home to the second oldest football club in the world, Australian Rules’ Melbourne FC. With no clubs to play against, it is little surprise that the third-oldest club in the world is Sheffield’s Hallam FC, and the fourth, Australian Rules’ Geelong FC, from Melbourne’s neighbouring city.
There are other reasons I wrote The Game That Would Be King. The history of ball games was uncharted territory. Previous attempts to navigate it were superficial, misguided, or simply wrong. Football history was there for the taking. Virgin land to plant a flag.
The history of ball games was uncharted territory . . . Football history was there for the taking.
Two other critical factors impelled me to the flying ball, looping life with startling symmetry, Sheffield and Melbourne up to mischief again. The first is the echoing realism of the film Kes, the second, the man whose ghostly hand steadied my preliminary scrawling. That’s you, Tom Wills.”
Our thanks to Brendan!
The Game That Would Be King is available now in the UK, Europe and US. It will be out in Australia in February! If you’re in Australia you can pre-order your copy from your favourite bookstores or from here
