- Published: 15 August 2011
- ISBN: 9781409045182
- Imprint: Transworld Digital
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 304
32 Programmes
- Published: 15 August 2011
- ISBN: 9781409045182
- Imprint: Transworld Digital
- Format: EBook
- Pages: 304
Funny and well-paced. The reader is in the hands of a skilled story-teller. This is not a book aimed at anoraks; it’s a memoir filled with wit and emotion.
Thin White Line
A brilliant idea nicely executed, it's certainly the funniest sport-related read this Christmas
Christopher Maume, Independent
A funny, charming and heart-warming tale of obsession
Nigel Walrond, Western Sunday Independent
A little gem... a brilliant way to reflect on his love affair with football
Henry Winter, Daily Telegraph
A wistful evocation of the author's early life told through a vast accumulation of football programmes he was forced to cull
Huw Richards, Guardian
An entertaining read, rich in nostalgia and reminiscent of Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch, this offers an insight into the power of obsession and how the beautiful game has changed. Moving and amusing
Sport magazine
Deliriously enjoyable... utterly engaging
Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller
Entertaining, heart-warming and expertly executed, this book is certain to strike a chord with anyone who's ever loved the game. Engrossing and enjoyable... funny and charming
Alistair Hunter, Two Banks of Four
Hugely enjoyable, poignant book... Dave Roberts' wonderful series of tales explain why every one of the programmes made it into the box; each is infused with a mixture of touching reminiscence or laugh-out-loud anecdote
Birmingham Post
I fail to believe that anyone who reads Dave Roberts' new book 32 Programmes cannot relate to his thinking as a football fan. It traces his life as a football fan through 32 chapters in his life, going into the bitter-sweet details of growing up in the 1970s and '80s via 32 football matches. Building on and around his first book, The Bromley Boys (soon to be released as a film, no less), Dave introduces us to his career, his attempts to find a soul mate and finally in a twist his life changing circumstances that will have you reaching for a tissue. If you read one new book on your holidays this summer, choose this one. And then you try and detail 10, let alone 32, games that mark the milestones in your life
The Ball is Round
I loved this book. If you know a man in his forties or fifties, please give him this book
John Inverdale
Imagine loafing in your favourite armchair, old mates around, beers and bites on hand, humour high, watching and discussing re-runs of memorable football matches. Sounds good, doesn't it? Well, it's not far off what you get with Dave Roberts' delightful homage to the beautiful game, and the part his life has played in it... A book full of the joys, miseries, near-misses, hopes, failures and fun of life, in this case a football obsessive's, but it's one we can all find something to identify with. A heart-warmer
Jon Wise, Book of the Week, Sunday Sport
Nostalgically warm in its tender recall of the way things used to be, this is a book for the true football follower, whose life has been shaped by the game and doesn't mind admitting it
Duncan Hamilton, two-time winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award
Remarkable... A book that every woman should study, for the unique insight it offers into the impenetrable enigma of the male mind
Jane Shilling, Daily Mail
Very funny in wry, Nick Hornby-esque fashion... This memoir will gain a lot of fans
Simon Redfern, Independent on Sunday
Wonderful, hilarious and moving. 32 Programmes is not just a football memoir but a delicious slice of the 1960s and 1970s, a razor-sharp and achingly evocative social history. This brilliant memoir will resonate with all of us who have ever supported a football team, listened to music and fallen in love.
Charlie Connelly, author of Attention All Shipping