Local: a club and its city: Liverpool's social history

Just finished Locãl last night. As a New Yorker whose followed Liverpool since 2003, I’ve wanted to become a supporter of the Club as a whole not just a fan of the team. Learning and understanding the pulse and ethos of the city has become paramount to even supporting the actual football for me. Locãl has been the best thing I’ve read thus far. Well done!

A spectacular read for anyone interested in Liverpool FC or, really, anyone interested in the social, political, and historical impact of sport. A true triumph—astonishing that this has to be self-published. Strongly recommended to anyone who has recently become interested in LFC and wonders where their success came from or anyone who ha supported them forever.

Cracking read for any Liverpool fan born in the City it outside. One minor point I would like to make - Sunday league teams who won the National club. Failed to name check my old mans team in the 80’s - North Liverpool! 😉

A must read for all Liverpool fans. It's a very good account of the city's history since the inception of LFC and its also describing brief, but very important, moments in the clubs history

Absolutely loved this book, and I'm not even a football fan! But I am from Liverpool, and the whole book was very close to my heart. Can thoroughly recommend it.

As a passionate Burnley FC fan who is married to a Scouse lass of a Red nature I always give her stick about her team as she does in spades about mine . Things have changed over the last week and a bit though because I must have mentioned sections of this book to her more times than I care to remember. It is simply THE best and most moving book about a city and its culture that I’ve ever read . I was moved to tears on occasion especially reading the pen pics of three of my wife’s friends who sadly died on that tragic day in Sheffield. On the other hand I was in stitches laughing at some of the tales of banter and humour over the years . I was working as a night concierge at one of the city’s Salvation Army hostels this year on the night of the European Cup Final and let’s just say I turned a blind eye to the numerous crates and bottles that were being demolished in the tv room by the clients . That night just proved that even people with basically nothing in their lives could believe for at least one night . JFT 96

POSSIBLY THE GREATEST BOOK IVE BEEN LUCKY ENOUGH TO READ ,NOT JUST THE FOOTY ,THE LAUGHTER BITS BUT OF A PEOPLE SO BRAVE AND WHOM STICK TO WOTS RIGHT AND STICK TOGETHER ,SHAME ON THE POLITICAL SYSTEM IN ENGLAND U DISCRIMINATED AGAINST AN UNMOVEABLE FORCE THAT IS THE FOLKS OF MERSEYSIDE ,

Been following the reds for over 40 years, I am not a local but had a season ticket in the 80's until marriage, kids and it all became too expensive! My experiences travelling to Liverpool for the game instilled in me a love for Liverpool and its people, I admired the Scouse character and their passion for their City. I have watched with admiration at how the City has redeveloped in recent years against huge obstacles. This book considers the City's social history and sets it in context of the history of Liverpool FC and to the present global expansion of the game. The author has clearly spent a huge amount of time undertaking analysis and research - yet he has the skill to write in such an engaging way that whole chapters are devoured easily. A huge range of Liverpudlians are interviewed and provide their perspective which I found really enjoyable. As stated by a previous reviewer this book really needed to be written and I am so pleased it has been and is such a worthy piece of work.

The book is a beautiful weaving of a club and city I love, one that made me both angry about the way the city is treated by the wider country and heartened by what a place it is that has stood proudly for what it believes in and for great values, you can't help but think modern Britain would be a much better place if it was scouse.The chapter which gave background to the Hillsborough victims, speaking about them as people and where they where when there lives where cruelly taken had me in floods of tears.All in all a beautiful book, I think should be red by reds all over the world to undertsand why this club is the way it is and why the people of Liverpool are the way they are.