Duncan Hamilton’s award winning account of Brian Clough, Peter Taylor, Nottingham Forest and himself is a blunt and honest account of a turbulent 15 years. However, due to the motives of Hamilton’s actions, ‘getting a line’ for tomorrows article, it almost seems as if he is a puppeteer manufacturing a novel.
Reading Hamilton’s account seemed familiar to watching Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy…hear me out:
Peter Taylor, the steely eyed tight lipped Lee Van Cleef; Brian Clough, the younger better looking quicker on the trigger Man With No Name (Eastwood), Duncan Hamilton himself directing as if he was Sergio Leone and the corridors and field of City Ground the vast desert landscape of Leone’s movies.
Barney Ronay, in his excellent book: The Absurd Ascent of the Most Important Man in Football, makes a valid point that Hamilton falls infatuated with Clough’s persona, and throughout the books this gives an imbalanced account of Clough and Taylor’s tenure. Hamilton makes up for this with a blunt view of Clough and Nottingham Forests downfall – the fall into heavy drinking, Clough and Taylor feeling their judgement is shot – an enlightening tale of Clough selling and then not having the judgement to replace Teddy Sheringham in his final season, and Clough’s distaste for the FA. The most interesting in the book is the point at mentioned earlier, with the fall-out between Taylor and Clough.
Intelligent, easy and enjoyable to read, showing much more than just the image of Clough upheld in society, showing a kind and caring man, but also a Machiavellian character in the vein of a Shakespearean protagonist. The more subtle and equally interesting side to the story are the tales of journalism and what a journalist must do to find a story.
