Manchester The City Years Kindle edition now available

[NPBlue]

Re: On sale now - Manchester The City Years

I bought a signed copy after the film night at the Cornerhouse a few months ago, not really knowing what to expect, but the book is, without question, the best I have read about the history of our club.

I've bought and received as presents numerous books over my decades as a blue, and nothing comes near it regarding the details of our history.

For example, I have read accounts over the years about the payment scandal surrounding Billy Meredith, but this is the first time I have read and understood just what happened, and why.

It's not just our early history either, that is revealing. I have my own recollections of the turmoil surrounding the club in the 90's, but I never realised how little I knew about it at the time.

The book is full of surprises.

 

[Gary James]

Re: On sale now - Manchester The City Years

I bought a signed copy after the film night at the Cornerhouse a few months ago, not really knowing what to expect, but the book is, without question, the best I have read about the history of our club.

I've bought and received as presents numerous books over my decades as a blue, and nothing comes near it regarding the details of our history.

For example, I have read accounts over the years about the payment scandal surrounding Billy Meredith, but this is the first time I have read and understood just what happened, and why.

It's not just our early history either, that is revealing. I have my own recollections of the turmoil surrounding the club in the 90's, but I never realised how little I knew about it at the time.

The book is full of surprises.

Thanks for the comments. Much appreciated. If you enjoyed this it would be worth borrowing "Manchester A Football History", "Joe Mercer, Football With A Smile" or my 2003 "Farewell To Maine Road" - get them from the library or borrow from another Blue and I'm sure you'll enjoy them.

Thanks again for your comments.

 

[NPBlue]

Re: On sale now - Manchester The City Years

I bought a signed copy after the film night at the Cornerhouse a few months ago, not really knowing what to expect, but the book is, without question, the best I have read about the history of our club.

I've bought and received as presents numerous books over my decades as a blue, and nothing comes near it regarding the details of our history.

For example, I have read accounts over the years about the payment scandal surrounding Billy Meredith, but this is the first time I have read and understood just what happened, and why.

It's not just our early history either, that is revealing. I have my own recollections of the turmoil surrounding the club in the 90's, but I never realised how little I knew about it at the time.

The book is full of surprises.

Thanks for the comments. Much appreciated. If you enjoyed this it would be worth borrowing "Manchester A Football History", "Joe Mercer, Football With A Smile" or my 2003 "Farewell To Maine Road" - get them from the library or borrow from another Blue and I'm sure you'll enjoy them.

Thanks again for your comments.

I already have the Joe Mercer and Farewell to Maine Rd books. I was a sponsor of the latter.

One thing I would like to ask you Gary, and it is something I have noticed over the years, is that the history of City always seems more certain after we moved to Maine Road in 1923.

I know the main stand at Hyde Road was destroyed by fire, and I suppose a lot of our history went up in flames along with the stand.

How much more certain would we be about our early history if the stand had not gone up in smoke?

I know we can never really know the answer, but all the minutes of meetings during our early days must, if they were still intact, have made your life a lot easier, and our knowledge of the club in it's infancy easier to research.

 

[Gary James]

Re: On sale now - Manchester The City Years

I bought a signed copy after the film night at the Cornerhouse a few months ago, not really knowing what to expect, but the book is, without question, the best I have read about the history of our club.

I've bought and received as presents numerous books over my decades as a blue, and nothing comes near it regarding the details of our history.

For example, I have read accounts over the years about the payment scandal surrounding Billy Meredith, but this is the first time I have read and understood just what happened, and why.

It's not just our early history either, that is revealing. I have my own recollections of the turmoil surrounding the club in the 90's, but I never realised how little I knew about it at the time.

The book is full of surprises.

Thanks for the comments. Much appreciated. If you enjoyed this it would be worth borrowing "Manchester A Football History", "Joe Mercer, Football With A Smile" or my 2003 "Farewell To Maine Road" - get them from the library or borrow from another Blue and I'm sure you'll enjoy them.

Thanks again for your comments.

I already have the Joe Mercer and Farewell to Maine Rd books. I was a sponsor of the latter.

One thing I would like to ask you Gary, and it is something I have noticed over the years, is that the history of City always seems more certain after we moved to Maine Road in 1923.

I know the main stand at Hyde Road was destroyed by fire, and I suppose a lot of our history went up in flames along with the stand.

How much more certain would we be about our early history if the stand had not gone up in smoke?

I know we can never really know the answer, but all the minutes of meetings during our early days must, if they were still intact, have made your life a lot easier, and our knowledge of the club in it's infancy easier to research.

To be frank City's own records have never been particularly useful as throughout the time I've been researching they've not been looked after. In fact Peter Swales asked Bernard Halford to destroy most of the club's material in the late 80s/early 90s when it was all thrown in to a skip. Some records were salvaged by City supporting staff (who had to ensure they weren't spotted!) but the powers that be wanted it all chucked out.

The 1920 fire destroyed the club's official records, but most of my research has been via other archives and newspapers, like Athletic News, Umpire, Gorton Reporter.... etc. There are also good archives holding City authorised/produced material in as early as the 1890s outside of Greater Manchester which I've used and pointed others in the direction of.

One of the greatest areas of research for me personally to help provide colour has been interviews with former players and fans. In the 25 years I've been researching I've managed to interview players who appeared for the Blues in the 1930s, children and grandchildren of players from the 1890s onwards, and supporters who attended games from about 1916 onwards. So, the colour, such as the story of Hyde Road's record crowd V Burnley told to me by Harry Hughes (amongst others) and the exploits of Bradford's Scattergood, has come from that, but prior to 1917 the 'fan' colour has had to come from later sources (such as interviews I've found in the 1920s with players, fans and so on) and is not therefore a first hand account. This limits the detail.

In terms of official records... the Football League improved its record keeping in the mid 1920s which then forced some clubs to change their approach and gave us much more detailed attendances and so on. Also, newspapers took the game more seriously as time moved on and became interested in reporting some of the periphery as well as the simple scores and reports.

Personally, it's the period prior to Maine Road that I'm most proud of in my research. Prior to the 1997 publication of "Manchester The Greatest City" only a couple of photos of Hyde Road had ever been published in a City book. Since then I've found images from almost every period of the ground's history and have images of almost every angle. Most I've not been able to use yet for various reasons (some copyright/rights holders; some I've simply not published the right book for them).

When it comes to City's history the period before 1923 is well detailed but sadly few publishers see interest in material from that long ago. I've been fortunate with "Manchester The City Years" and "Manchester The Greatest City" in that my publishers have allowed me to write more on those years than has previously been published in a City book. It's not as much as the modern era but it's significantly more than usually written (I'd have loved to write a book purely on the Hyde Rd years and before but, according to my publishers, there wouldn't be a market to cover the costs of production, image rights etc.). Maybe one day I'll do it anyway.

 

[NPBlue]

Re: On sale now - Manchester The City Years

Thanks for that.

It was the lack of photographs that made me think we had lost a lot in the fire. Like you wrote, the same few photos appeared all the time, so, yes, it was a refreshing change to see so many new ones in your book, so thanks for unearthing them.

 

[Gary James]

Re: On sale now - Manchester The City Years

A brief update - the last 50 copies of Manchester The City Years have now been distributed to the people who supply Amazon apparently. This means that their supply will probably run out before Christmas. Last I heard MCFC still have a few copies and some Waterstones branches have some, but other than that if anyone wants to get the book for a Christmas pressie it would make sense to get hold of it soon before it sells out.

Amazon are usually the cheapest shop: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Manchester-Years-Tracing-Story-Modern/dp/0955812771/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384780708&sr=8-1&keywords=manchester+the+city+years" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.amazon.co.uk/Manchester-Year ... city+years</a>

If you're not certain about its content have a look at it at the City Store or see the text only stuff here: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Manchester-The-City-Years-2009-2012-ebook/dp/B00C2Y2LZ4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1384780784&sr=8-2&keywords=manchester+the+city+years" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.amazon.co.uk/Manchester-The- ... city+years</a> You can view part of the text as a sample. The full book has 100s of photos as well as about 500,000 words on over 600 pages.

Thanks.

 

[Cellarite]

Re: On sale now - Manchester The City Years

When will I be able to get a copy of this or "Manchester - a football history"? I got my Dad the Manchester book for Chrimbo and want one myself.

 

[Gary James]

Re: On sale now - Manchester The City Years

When will I be able to get a copy of this or "Manchester - a football history"? I got my Dad the Manchester book for Chrimbo and want one myself.

The publishers have distributed their final copies and have no plans to update. I believe Waterstones Deansgate have a couple and the National Football Museum. MCFC may also have some but apart from those I'm not aware of anywhere else that has copies now. Sorry.

 

[Mad Eyed Screamer]

Re: On sale now - Manchester The City Years

Gary, with regards to the photos you have of Hyde Road, who owns the image rights to them after so long?

 

[Gary James]

Re: On sale now - Manchester The City Years

Gary, with regards to the photos you have of Hyde Road, who owns the image rights to them after so long?

Always the agency/source the publishers or I have bought them off. They came from a variety of archives, including the newspapers themselves (such as the archives of the Illustrated London News) and some came via the British Library. They supplied the material and own the copyright on those images they've supplied. The publishers have to pay reproduction rights and, one of the reasons why they are reluctant to produce ebooks at the moment, the providers usually limit their use with further fees for ebooks etc. As my books tend to have a lot of images it would be too costly for an ebook.

I've seen people lift the images in the past to use on their sites and publications but that's illegal without getting permission (and paying reproduction fees) to the copyright holder. I know that many of these images were originally captured so long ago that copyright shouldn't be an issue, however the argument that the archive/owner uses is that they will take the photo/scan of the original (or newspaper) and that will then be a modern day image. As they may often be the only place where that original image survives then the publisher/author has to pay what it takes to use it and accept the restrictions. I've tried to argue against this saying that the original newspaper was produced in, say 1904, and the photographer died XX years ago, but it's not a valid argument. It's a big industry and shows the value in any organisation developing its own archive.

Are there some images you were interested in using? If so let me know and I'll trace the copyright holder. Thanks.