World Book Day - favourite City book

[NPBlue]

I've got a few books by Gary James and they are all worth a read, as is the biography of Colin Bell, but my own favourite is Trautmann's Journey by Catrine Clay.

It's a fascinating read. OK, it's not necessarily about City, but it's without doubt the most interesting book I have ever read.

 

[Gary James]

ok we have a number of books with reviews, but big question is there a chronological list available of ALL city related books. Any list in fact?

I included a list in the 1997 edition of Manchester The Greatest City (along with a list of videos up to that point), but so many books have been produced since then that I'm not aware of a comprehensive list. A couple of years ago I did the Treasure Trove 'Blue Bookshelf' feature where I highlighted City related books. It lasted for a few years and I profiled over 100 City related books (mostly published since 1990) and still hadn't reached the end before the series was dropped.

For me there are three main types of City books - those written by fans/contributors to forums (like me and so many Bluemoon contributors who have produced books with real feeling for the club); those produced by professional journalists (sometimes they are also City fans, but often a professional journo producing a biography or potted history for a wide market); and the third group are people (non-City fans) who think they can cash in on City by producing a book ('any' book in some instances) and make some money. That third category is easy to spot as they tend to make silly mistakes (I've seen books where a City legend was called Bert Trueman and another City specific book whose blurb contained the line 'As Manchester's second club' - how many Blues would ever accept that and, for a history of the club, is way off the mark!) but, as with all three categories, the quality of books can vary enormously and, let's face it, sometimes we want to read about our heroes and can overlook some mistakes if the overall story is one we enjoy.

There are a fourth category of writers but we've not really had books by these yet, and that group consists of academic historians. A couple of projects I'm working on are taking that approach, but in the main City have not been the focus of serious, indepth, academic studies yet, but some of us are working towards that at the moment.

 

[plattlane01]

Superb, that certainly answers my question and helps, first stop downstairs to grab the 97 book which I only stumbled across again on Sunday. Good luck with your research and projects your working on Gary.