The Damned Utd (38 page)

I believe in family and I believe in me; Brian Howard Clough
–

It is Thursday 12 September 1974, and I wish you were here.

In May 1979
Margaret Hilda Thatcher and the Conservative Party won
the General Election,
and Brian Howard Clough and Nottingham Forest won
the European Cup –
No Milton. No Blake. No Orwell –
D.U.F.C.

This novel is another fiction, based on another fact. That fact was found in the following sources:

A Kind of Loving
by Stan Barstow (1960).

Biting Talk
by Norman Hunter (2004).

Bremner!
by Bernard Bale (1998).

Champions Again: Derby County 1967/75
by Gerald Mortimer (1975).

Christie Malry’s Own Double-Entry
by B. S. Johnson (1973).

Clough: A Biography
by Tony Francis (1987).

Clough: The Autobiography
by Brian Clough (1994).

Cloughie: Walking on Water
by Brian Clough (2002, 2003).

Derby County: The Clough Years
by Michael Cockayne (2003).

Don Revie: Portrait of a Footballing Enigma
by Andrew Mourant (1990).

Hard Man, Hard Knocks
by Terry Yorath (2004).

His Way: The Brian Clough Story
by Patrick Murphy (1993).

In a League of their Own
by Jeremy Novick (1995).

Leeds United Match Day Magazine and Programmes, 1974–75.

Marching on Together
by Eddie Gray (2002).

Only a Game?
by Eamon Dunphy (1976).

Peter Lorimer: Leeds and Scotland Hero
by Peter Lorimer and Phil Rostron (2002).

Psycho Mike and the Phantom Ice Rink
by Don Watson.

Room at the Top
by John Braine (1957).

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
by Alan Sillitoe (1958).

Selected Poems
by Tony Harrison (1984).

Sniffer: The Life and Times of Allan Clarke
by David Saffer (2001).

The Elland Road Encyclopaedia
by Paul Harrison (1994).

The Football Managers
by Johnny Rogan (1989).

The Glory Game
by Hunter Davies (2001 edition).

The Goalkeeper’s Revenge
by Bill Naughton (1961).

The Ice Age
by Margaret Drabble (1977).

The Leeds United Story
by Martin Jarred and Malcolm Macdonald (2002).

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
by Alan Sillitoe (1959).

The Official FA Year Books
, 1966–76.

The Real Mackay
by Dave Mackay and Martin Knight (2004).

The Unforgiven: Don Revie’s Leeds United
by Rob Bagchi and Paul Rogerson (2002).

The Yorkshire Post
, July–September 1974.

There Was Some Football Too … 100 Years of Derby County
by Tony Francis (1984).

This Sporting Life
by David Storey (1960).

Welcome to Elland Road: LUFC in Pictures
by John and Andrew Varley (1999).

Winning Isn’t Everything: A Biography of Sir Alf Ramsey
by Dave Bower (1998).

With Clough
by Peter Taylor (1980).

I would like to thank the following people for their assistance and their support: Mrs Scriven and the staff of the Balne Lane Library, Wakefield; Andrew Vine and David Clay at the
Yorkshire Post
; Sarn Warbis and Richard Hall; François Guérif, Agnès Guery, Daniel Lemoine and all the staff of Payot & Rivages, Paris; Luca Formenton, Marco Tropea, Cristina Ricotti and all the staff of il Saggiatore, Milan; Shunichiro Nagashima; Kester Aspden, Andy Beckett, Gordon Burn, Giuseppe Genna, Peter Hobbs, Eoin McNamee, David Mitchell, Justin Quirk, Ian Rankin, Cathi Unsworth, Martyn Waites, and Tony White; William Miller, Junzo Sawa, Hamish Macaskill, Peter Thompson and all the staff of the English Agency Japan; Stephen Page, Lee Roy Brackstone, Angus Derby Cargill, Anna Pallai, Ian Bahrami and Kate Ward and all the staff of Faber and Faber Limited. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends, in Britain and Japan, and particularly my father, Basil Peace.

NINETEEN SEVENTY FOUR

NINETEEN SEVENTY SEVEN

NINETEEN EIGHTY

NINETEEN EIGHTY THREE

GB84

David Peace is the author of The Red Riding Quartet and was chosen as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 2003. In 2004 he won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his novel GB84. Tokyo Year Zero, the first book of his Tokyo Trilogy, was published in 2007. He lives in Tokyo with his wife and two children.

Further Praise for
The Damned United
:

‘The strangest, most compelling football novel ever written.’ Nick Rennison,
Sunday Times

‘An extraordinarily gripping portrait of Brian Clough at his peak, it is surely the best football book ever written.’ Dominic Sandbrook, Books of the Year,
Evening Standard

‘Incomparable … a brilliant novel … Peace’s work might be fiction, but its reading of the paranoia, incompetence and venality at large in football’s corridors of power is almost painful in its accuracy.’ Jim White, Books of the Year,
Daily Telegraph

‘The most compelling football book of 2006 … Shakespearean in its scale, ambition, depth and elements of tragedy, farce and betrayal.’ Phil Shaw, Books of the Year,
Independent

‘Now this, young man, is what you call an exceptional football book, as bold, brilliant and unconventional as Brian Clough himself, whose voice is vividly brought back to life … It is a great story grippingly revived.’ Matt Dickinson, Books of the Year,
The Times

‘This was an exceptional year in that it produced the best football novel. Ever. David Peace’s meticulous recreation of Brian Clough’s 44 days at Leeds United has power, authenticity and drama.’ Hugh MacDonald, Sports Books of the Year,
The Herald