Read About The Reds – Out Now
‘Football Land’, a book about Forest’s remarkable last three seasons, written by our very own Stephen Parker and published on December 10th, just in time for Christmas! Here’s a taster from the introduction.
Over Trent Bridge, a glimpse of the grey river, then into the wall of a crowd shuffling towards the City Ground. We pass calling programme sellers and red and white rosette and scarf stalls, the fug of fried onion and fags and then a turnstile clanks me through to a new world. A lime-green pitch dazzles. Spinning wooden rattles clatter along the terraces and every voice comes at full-tilt. I sit on my dad’s shoulders, clutching his overcoat collar, am coaxed to stand on a wooden box, then feel near crushed on the Bridgford kop when Forest score. If much else happens, I don’t recall it, not even the score, and the game goes on too long for a knee-high child. My first match and it’s the sensations that stay with me. Fast forward decades of football played and watched and talked about…
Three seasons of drama at the City Ground shape the story of this book. It charts Forest’s dismal start to 2021 in the Championship league, followed by play-off promotion to the Premiership. It traces the mass summer-signings and struggle to survive after more than two decades out of the top league. Then it tracks the season when Forest seek to establish themselves against some of the world’s best teams. Along the way, the Reds break records for most players signed in a transfer window, sack a manager who still has supporter-backing, and face a points deduction (for breaching financial fair play regulations) which puts them perilously close to relegation.
And then there’s what actually happens on the pitch. If every fixture is a play in itself, full of characters good and bad, twists and turns, the ordinary to the outrageous, then Forest’s games over these past three years make for a collection of plots to test the resolve of the most ardent fan. Still, emotional highs and lows are the stuff of football. When we fall in love with a club, we expect entertainment to be part pain as well as pleasure and they don’t necessarily come in equal measure. My first memory of real joy came out of a tiny television screen when Forest won the FA Cup in 1959 and my mum hugged me and cried tears of joy that made me think she was upset until she laughed. Then she had us scanning those jubilant oh-so-small faces to try and find my dad and granddad in the Wembley stands. No chance of that, of course, but I do recall the trophy being passed around the victorious players and that they were the Forest team, all beaming with pride. Nottingham Forest 2 – 1 Luton Town. A fledgling love affair had been born and that was that.
Since then, times of disappointment and delight when witnessing the Reds’ performances on the pitch have toyed with my emotions and moods, just as with any fan. Memories dissolve and evolve, collapse or become crystallised. A recent incident, goal or player performance can trigger a moment from the memory-bank, reliable or unreliable. Many of the pieces here are flavoured with such time-lapses, where ‘now’ meets ‘then’ before both move on.
Why ‘Football Land’? In writing about the team I support and the game I love, I came to realise how much football forged my childhood. It filled my life and cemented family and friendship bonds. It pretty much was life. Everything was suffused with football and Forest, from playing it to supporting them. Visits to the City Ground – when Dad could manage his shifts – became the most important ritual on the calendar. I heard language I’d never heard before and felt waves of collective raw emotion I’d never come across before. Even learning to read came through a total immersion in Forest programmes rather than any reading scheme. Later, I would come to feel a real sense of belonging, part of a community.
Once attachment to the game takes hold, we all know it can stay with you for life. Ironically, though, it was whilst being unable to go and see the Reds, due to family circumstances, that I began to scribble notes and thoughts on football to compensate, a habit I’d abandoned in adolescence. In those days, I jotted things down, such as my own opinion on a player’s performance, to amuse myself and a few mates. Now, decades on, here I was, doing something very similar. What I had now was a lifetime’s worth of football for reference to tap into and to share.
In this personal take on the most recent seasons in the life and history of one of the oldest football clubs in the world, it is inevitable that the book is flavoured with echoes from the past. We all make our own box-set of memories. Nottingham Forest might not have the largest trophy cabinet in the land but it has plenty of other riches to go with their coveted silverware. Any fan of Forest will likely be familiar with the club’s Garibaldi connection, its humble origins and its time in the lower divisions, as well as being crowned Champions of Europe twice. For some of us, plenty of that past has been lived-experience, for others it’s been received, all part of the process of continuity from one generation to the next.
You can get a copy of ‘Football Land’, price £9.99, in several ways.
Order or buy direct from ‘Five Leaves Bookshop’, 14a Long Row, Swann’s Yard (just off Market Square), Nottingham NG1 2DH.
Email – bookshop@fiveleaves.co.uk
Tel – 0115 8373097
Order or buy direct from ‘The Book Case’, 50 Main Street, Lowdham, Nottingham NG14 7 BE Email – janestreeter@thebookcase.co.uk Tel – 0115 9634143
Buy direct from the author, Steve Parker.
Email – steveparkersjp@gmail.com
Contact me with your name and address via email. I will then send you details to make a bank transfer. On receipt of £11.99 (which includes £2.00 towards pp) you will receive your copy of ‘Football Land’.
*Article provided by Stephen Parker (Nottingham Forest Correspondent).
*Main image @NFFC the book covers some of Forest’s best moments over the last few seasons.
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