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Post by franklinmarsh on Dec 21, 2009 12:04:44 GMT
Anyone sampled this character? I read GB84, a fictional account of The Miner's Strike a while back, which was a great read. Was surprised to find The Damned United (the Brian Clough/Leeds thing) unputdownable. I haven't read much recently, apart from Alistair Maclean's Breakheart Pass, and was please to find a copy of Michael Slade's Ghoul, but put this to one side to have a look at Peace's 1980. Jeezus! Flew through this at lightning speed. Mainly concerned with corruption and sleaze within the Yorkshire police during the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper, I hadn't been so gripped by a book for a long time. It's part of a quartet, and I've just repeated the speedy despatch of 1974, and started 1977 (leaving 1983 to finish up). Three of them were adapted for TV by Channel 4, but I failed to tune in. The books are glorious, though. Grim but compelling.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 21, 2009 19:20:14 GMT
Haven't read any of the novels, but I caught two of the TV adaptations including the Ripper one. The first story concerned corruption in the property development market if i remember, and was indeed very dour. As the badly beaten journo is dumped from a speeding van he's reminded "you're in the North now" or words to that effect, implying they don't recognise soft Southern laws.
Strangely, i can't remember anything about the Yorkshire Ripper story which i made a point of watching. i don't doubt the books are very effective.
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stephenbacon
Crab On The Rampage
www.stephenbacon.co.uk
Posts: 78
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Post by stephenbacon on Dec 22, 2009 23:10:25 GMT
I like this writer. I've read all four of the 'Red Riding' books. I thought the television adaptations (condensed into 3) were excellent, if bleak. Probably the best tv of 2009, in my opinion. Definitely worth checking out on DVD/repeat on tv.
I also enjoyed The Damned United. I have GB84 and Tokyo Year Zero, but they're on my TBR pile.
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Post by benedictjjones on Jul 23, 2010 21:01:16 GMT
i recently read 'tokyo year zero' and thought it was immense, really looking forward to 'occupied city'
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Post by dem bones on Feb 17, 2013 18:26:17 GMT
David Peace - The Damned United: An English Fairy Story (Faber & Faber, 2007) Blurb: In 1974 the brilliant and controversial Brian Clough made perhaps his most eccentric decision: he accepted the Leeds United Manager's job. As successor to Don Revie, his bitter adversary, he was to last only forty-four days. In one of the most acclaimed novels of this or any other year, David Peace takes us into the mind and thoughts of Ol' Big 'ead himself, and brings vividly to life one of post-war Britain's most complex and fascinating characters. It is 1974. Football is routinely filthy, and Don Revie's Leeds are despised as the English masters of the dark arts. Nobody despises them more than Brian Clough, recently resigned from his beloved Derby County, now earning his crust (or rather, not earning it) at division three struggler's Brighton. When Revie accepts the England job, the Leeds board arrive at the lunatic idea of appointing Clough, the clubs most outspoken critic, as his successor. Their marriage made in hell begins badly, and just gets worse and worse for all parties ... We should try swipe The Damned United for the ghost story genre as one of the few great haunted house novels. It's true that the enigmatic Don Revie is very much alive for the duration of the book, but as far as Brian Clough is concerned, the ghost of his detested rival permeates every nook and cranny of Elland Road, manifesting as either a disembodied voice or a black dog prowling through the car park. It's easy to understand why the Clough family and senior Leeds players were so upset by The Damned United, but if I read a more engrossing novel in 2013, it will have been a bloody good year. And if Clough's axe attack on Revie's desk didn't happen quite the way Peace describes it, then it really should have. Just shy of 350 pages, The Damned United belts along like a Laymon novel. If Mr. Peace is to be taken at his word then we could do worse than sign up the entire 74-75 Leeds squad for Vault as they always travel with a stash of paperbacks. On the coach journey to Loftus Road, Johnny Giles gets stuck into The Exorcist!
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Post by jamesdoig on Feb 18, 2013 9:18:08 GMT
Surely they should have been in the Devil's jury, not the starting line-up of the 1976 Philadelphia Flyers.
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Post by pulphack on Mar 2, 2013 7:14:51 GMT
The film is nicer, and got a better reception from the family than the book (for obvious reasons), but even if Clough was not the psychotic drunk of Peace's imagination, as a work of fiction this is a stunning bok. Having read some of Clough's own rantings and ravings (John Sadler took the notes for the autobiographies), I suspect Peace may be closer than young Nigel would ever like to admit, as they do get a bit out-there at times. And this from someone who considers him the greatest footy manager of his generation (ok, he didn't win the trophies of Busby or Paisley, but then he never had the infrastructure or chairman support of those two, and built his two clubs - as opposed to their one - entirely from scratch). Taylor was a great coach and talent spotter, but not a natural leader: he needed Clough as Clough needed him.
Leeds were probably the most frustrating team of the time as they had the skill to be great, yet fear of failure made cheating endemic to hedge the bets. Revie was a flawed man, but when I discovered he grew up in the shadow of one of the last workhouses, it did explain - if not excuse - why that fear drove a talented tactician and coach to add cheating to the menu, and why he always chased the money.
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