Book Review: The Illustrated History of Football
The Illustrated History of Football
by David Squires
Published by Century
2017
First of all, something of an admission - I don’t really do cartoons. Ever since my first week at university and the promise of a ‘Graphic Novel’ option as part of my English Literature degree, I ran an almost literal mile and hid in a store cupboard with a well-thumbed copy of Vanity Fair - the Thackeray …
Mental Health Awareness Week: Retirement - Game Over?
As part of my piece on mental health and elite football posted on this site on Tuesday, I outlined some of the key stressors characteristic of the tough, intensely pressurised and volatile world of the professional game. However, my analysis largely skirted around arguably the most significant stressor – though it did so deliberately, with this post (and Rob’s review of Alan Gernon’s Retired) in mind. My intention …
Mental Health Awareness Week: Book Review: Retired
Retired by Alan Gernon
Published by Pitch Publishing
2016, £9.99
As we have established over our series of articles this week, footballers and football supporters are by no means exempt from the fact that a quarter of people suffer from mental health disorders. That these conditions are established as illnesses is also undeniable and great strides have been made in in recent years to help the wider public recognise …
Mental Health Awareness Week: Mental Health and Elite Football
Last Wednesday, with this article already taking shape, it was revealed that Everton winger Aaron Lennon had been detained by police under the Mental Health Act. The Merseyside club subsequently confirmed that the former Spurs player was “receiving care and treatment for a stress-related illness”. The news itself, as well as the way it was reported, discussed and (in some instances) appallingly misrepresented in the media, brought into …
Mental Health Awareness Week: On Being a Football Fan
Football is one of the few things in life that has the power to consistently affect my state of mind for better or worse, so when I started to think about how I might go about exploring its relationship with mental health to kick off a mini-series of posts on this website to mark Mental Health Awareness Week I couldn’t resist looking inwards.
Although such a focus might appear …