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Details
Title: Celtic in the 1980s: The Lost Decade
Author: Sean Huddleston
Published: February 2012
Synopsis
The book will look at Celtic in the 1980s, the triumphs and disasters both on and off the pitch, and contextualise the changing world around Parkhead from politics to fashion, from music to television. Each season will be taken in turn and every major issue and event will be covered in suitable detail. Ultimately, it will be a journey to one of the most controversial and action packed eras of the club’s history.
This work is a wistful and nostalgic look at this period. Any supporter who underwent their ‘formative’ years in this period will normally re-count it in reasonably glowing terms. However, this work is also a lament. The club refused to join the football ‘new order’ at this time and the legacy that this left was an embittered and cynical one which could be argued has never left the club’s support.
Supporters, like myself, who grew up listening to other supporters who had their formative experiences in the 1960s and 1970s listened to tales about the club climbing its way to the top of European football’s gentry and establishing Celtic as a recognisable member of the continentsí footballing elite. Indeed, a fear was taking hold that the club was slipping towards mediocrity.
This is not an exploration of a ‘dark time’ for Celtic. Rather, the 1980s has the feel of a ‘lost decade’, a lost time where Celtic could have, and should have, been at the top table of domestic and European football. Instead, for every wonderful (and they were wonderful) success that Celtic experienced, two steps back were the next moves taken.
The Author
Sean Huddleston, 33, was born and raised in Belfast before spending the majority of his adult life in Glasgow after initially attending the University of Strathclyde to study Modern British History.
Sean is a history teacher of eight years, historian and writer having written for The Times website, CQN Magazine as well as being an established writer for the Celtic website The Celtic Underground for the last two years. Sean has also been a season ticket holder at Celtic Park for the last five years as well as a shareholder for the last three. Sean also worked in the Celtic museum and visitor centre for six years gaining a valuable insight into club history, memorabilia and records.
Sean has recently successfully completed an Mres in Modern British History specialising in the history of identity in Scotland and Ireland.
Sean’s first ever Celtic game was the infamous ‘Cliftonville friendly’ that was held in Belfast, August 1984 (and subsequently abandoned due to rioting!). His first home game at Celtic Park was a narrow 1–0 win over Morton in February 1988.
Review
(by joebloggscity)
Into the digital age of media, physical books may become the minority, and reading/buying books in digital format is possibly (whether regrettably or not) a large part of the future. “Celtic in the 1980s: The Lost Decade” is not the first Celtic ebook but it is one of the first complete books to be actually published on Amazon.co.uk for sale in ebook format only. In that sense, this book could inspire other writers-to-be to write books on the club in their bedroom to be easily published on Amazon or Lulu.com and the like. This book is very cheap, and at just £2.05 (the official full price) you will see supporters jump over from physical to digital quite readily.
As for the book, the author, Sean Huddleston, has written on an era making a salient point which is that surprisingly there has been little written on the decade despite some great moments of success during it. In isolation, the 85-86 and 87-88 seasons have been written about extensively themselves but not really the era as a whole. This book goes towards partially rectifying this oversight.
First things first. The author really needs to get a new proof reader and/or editor. The number of spelling, grammar and punctuation errors are so numerous it’s just unacceptable. It’s impossible to pass without comment. It spoils the book unnecessarily and it can be quite infuriating as you attempt to get through it. Amazingly his biog on Amazon says he is a school teacher, so that’s 5 of the belt on the hand for this.
Anyhow, the book goes through the seasons chronologically giving a swift run through the seasons with a summary of the team’s progress. As this was a fairly competitive time in Scotland, then it should be quite interesting. The result in this book is quite mixed.
The season write ups are done almost as if you are reading a BBC videprinter on a Saturday afternoon as the scores come in. A lot more could be said of the matches which is disappointing. There were a lot of good games in those seasons even in many games in which we lost. Aberdeen, and Dundee Utd had made some great headway in Europe, and so matches against them had become as important as matches against the Huns. You’d hardly think so if you read this book.
HOWEVER, the author does manage to add in various anecdotes, references and notes at points which helps to give this book a certain weight and is a refresher for those who have forgotten much from back then. He does work at helping to convey the general condition and consensus of the club and the support in those seasons, which is much to his credit. Yet at the end it does seem to come up short on providing any definitive conclusion and give an answer to the question of why it was a Lost Decade. The reader can concote their own opinion from the brief information in the chapters, but it would have been more interesting if the author was able to elaborate more on events and issues than he does. Some points may even baffle, for example I don’t see Mo Johnston now being given any ‘deference’ by the support as the author states at one point.
It can be churlish to quibble over the book taking in its minimal price, but as it’s published and for sale then you have to show it the courtesy of an honest review no matter the price. In that sense, I’m sorry to be negative on the book. It is in part a lost opportunity but hopefully it can pass on the baton to someone else who will take some inspiration from this and can build on what has been written here on the period.
I still will look forward to the author’s next works, but hope he can rectify in the next books some of the issues with this one. He had at least the originality to write on a period which most other authors seemed to have passed over.
Overall, I’m disappointed with this book. Hoped for better. There definitely is a lot to say on the period and its impact on the history of the club. This book though ends up well short.
Product Details
- Format: Kindle Edition (ebook only)
- File Size: 5120 KB
- Publisher: JMD Media Ltd (7 Feb 2012)
- Sold by:Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
- Language English
- ASIN: B0076KWUE6