Reviews and Comments

"Essential reading" is the comment by iconic Leeds United covering journalist Phil Hay on the cover of this book, and it truly is. If you're a Leeds fan and want to know the club's history, look no further. Daniel Chapman walks his way through the first century of Leeds United as well as the decades leading up to its creation, with insight, humour and style. The book ends with Leeds United reaching promotion back to the Premier League at the end of the 2019/2020 season.

Chanced on a review of Karen Hao's book yesterday and mentioned it as an idea for my non-fiction book club. Turns out at least one of the other guys has already read it and gave a glowing endorsement. Looking forward to have a go.

What better time to finally pick up my signed copy of Leeds United writer, podcaster and connoisseur Daniel Chapman's essential book on this fantastic club, than the week in which it again won promotion back to the Premier League after two remarkable seasons under Daniel Farke? MOT.

Was thinking about this book and realized it wasn't imported from my Goodreads account. Very interesting material, and well presented. Happy to recommend.

Third chapter on seasonality was better, and contains interesting stuff. Still, can't help but feel the sharp dismissals of other models are so far contrasted by some pretty vague language for their own observations. It's also really wordy. I'd have liked this on 40-50% the number of words.

The accounts of Native American views on European societies are interesting but the style is grating and confusing and overall the text feels more like a highly political Twitter thread than an intellectual narrative. I hope this changes or it's going to be a long read.