More Than a Game
On sale
9th November 2023
Price: £24.99
William Hill Sports Book of the Year, 2024
The story of how the British shaped sport, and sport shaped the British.
Sport is an enduring element of British life and culture. Few other strands of Britain’s history touch on so many significant aspects of past and present: national identity, class, gender, the relationship between country and town, the rise of commerce, the evolution of ethical debate. And that’s apart from the on-field action – the triumphs and heartbreaks that have become part of the national narrative.
For a country so obsessed with the invention, playing and watching of sport, the story of how it has come to reflect us remains untold. More Than a Game tracks each game as a driver of social change, a vibrant expression of Britain’s identity: horse-racing’s obsession with blood and money turned an aristocratic pastime into a national sport; boxing promoted opportunity for ethnic minorities, while simultaneously enforcing a regime of discrimination; golf rehearsed a perennial battle over Britain’s landscape; the football fan created a unique, exuberant, often troubled culture at the centre of British life; and the Empire and Commonwealth Games emerged as an unexpected response to the end of the imperial story.
The history of Britain in sport is a history of popular heroes and pantomime villains, of shared and contested passions and loyalties, of winning and losing. More Than a Game captures these iconic stories, revealing how sport has infiltrated every part of British life, from top to bottom, cementing its place as the ultimate theatre of Britain’s past, and its present.
(P)2023 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Sport is an enduring element of British life and culture. Few other strands of Britain’s history touch on so many significant aspects of past and present: national identity, class, gender, the relationship between country and town, the rise of commerce, the evolution of ethical debate. And that’s apart from the on-field action – the triumphs and heartbreaks that have become part of the national narrative.
For a country so obsessed with the invention, playing and watching of sport, the story of how it has come to reflect us remains untold. More Than a Game tracks each game as a driver of social change, a vibrant expression of Britain’s identity: horse-racing’s obsession with blood and money turned an aristocratic pastime into a national sport; boxing promoted opportunity for ethnic minorities, while simultaneously enforcing a regime of discrimination; golf rehearsed a perennial battle over Britain’s landscape; the football fan created a unique, exuberant, often troubled culture at the centre of British life; and the Empire and Commonwealth Games emerged as an unexpected response to the end of the imperial story.
The history of Britain in sport is a history of popular heroes and pantomime villains, of shared and contested passions and loyalties, of winning and losing. More Than a Game captures these iconic stories, revealing how sport has infiltrated every part of British life, from top to bottom, cementing its place as the ultimate theatre of Britain’s past, and its present.
(P)2023 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
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Reviews
Offers something rich, textured and complex: a thoughtful history of how sport has shaped society and vice versa. You will find delicious nuggets, several "I never knew that" fascinomas, and the overdue correction of long accepted narratives about our sport-obsessed nation
Highly original . . . lively, rich and readable . . . the range of Horspool's knowledge is impressive
Fascinating . . . More Than a Game observes the grand sweep of British sporting history playing out as a set of eye-opening facts
Illuminating . . . [Horspool] has a lovely eye for the informative detail
A superb historical overview of the eternally close and often symbiotic relationship between British sport and British society. Capacious, full of telling detail, unfailingly readable and, perhaps above all, imbued with rock-solid judgment, it deserves to become a classic of sporting literature
A fascinating insight into how sport is both driven by and a driver of societal change
A sparkling history that makes the reader keep murmuring "I never knew that"
An elegant, richly-textured history
Absolutely fascinating and completely eye-opening - every page contains a gem. I loved it
Horspool places sport at the heart of Britain's story . . . A joy . . . More Than a Game observes the grand sweep of British sporting history playing out as a set of eye-opening facts
Thoughtful and entertaining
More Than A Game brilliantly and evocatively details the way we shaped this obsession and how it came to shape us and, indeed, our landscape
Horspool writes briskly and clearly . . . if you like to watch sport while thinking politics, this is the book for you
He has a lovely eye for memorable details . . . The most powerful theme of Horspool's book, though, is his attention to women's sport, so often marginalised in older accounts