Football Fiction

Ashley is a novelist, poet, creative writing lecturer, and former football referee. His novel Your Show (Faber 2022) tells the story of Uriah Rennie, the first Black man to referee a Premier League football match in the UK. The book is a novelisation of Rennie’s life and explores his success and character on the pitch, and the discrimination he faced as the only Black referee in professional football. He is a great speaker and has spoken of the challenge of refereeing being more representative (just 2% of referees in England’s top seven divisions are Black or Asian). https://ashleyhicksonlovence.com/

Carrie is a journalist and academic who has written 'Unsuitable for Females': The Rise of the Lionesses and Women's Football in England which charts the story of women's football in England from the 19th century through pen portraits of significant people in the game. It was shortlisted for the 2023 Sports Book Awards for Best Football Writing of the Year. She has also written The Pride of the Lionesses (Pitch, 2019) and The Roar of the Lionesses: Women's Football in England (Pitch), which was one of the Guardian's best sports books of 2016. https://www.carriedunn.net/about

Musa is a Berlin-based British author, broadcaster, poet, and co-host of the Stadio football podcast. He is the author of Striking Out, a Young Adult (YA) book co-authored with footballer Ian Wright which tells the story of a young boy whose mentor helps him achieve his dream of being a football player. It won the Children’s Book of the Year in 2022. He was commissioned by the FA to write “An Ode To Football,” a poem to mark its 150th anniversary. He has also written a novel about a young man making a life in Berlin and a memoir about his experience of going to Eton College. https://www.musaokwonga.com/about

Peter is a poet, novelist and playwright who has written for a variety of audiences. His Young Adult (YA) The Silent Striker (HopeRoad), tells the story of a teenage boy who aspires to be a professional football player, navigating the challenges of inner-city teenage life and losing his hearing. The novel touches on themes including racism, family problems and deafness in a sensitive way that is wonderful for young readers. Pete has worked with the British Council in the past, including storytelling tours in Lebanon, Hong Kong, and Pakistan. https://www.booktrust.org.uk/book/t/the-silent-striker/

David has written two books about football: The Damned Utd about Brian Clough’s brief spell as manager of Leeds United, and which was turned into a film with Michael Sheen. Red or Dead was published in 2013 and charts the rise of Liverpool Football Club. https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571224333-the-damned-utd/

Children’s author Tom has written several books about football and/or against a backdrop of the game. He often mixes football with other genres, including crime in the Foul Play series, in which a 14 year-old boy solves football crimes, spying in The Squad series in which teenage spies go undercover in the England youth team, and ghost stories in the Defenders series, about ghostly hauntings at football venues. https://tompalmer.co.uk/biography/

Ross's novel A Natural tells the story of a young gay footballer coming to terms with his sexuality against the backdrop of playing for a lower league professional team, exploring the challenges of being gay in football, and topic of masculinity. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/03/ross-raisin-interview-a-na...

Julie is a highly regarded sportswriter, novelist and screenwriter. She became the first female football journalist working in Fleet Street in 1973, an experience she has written about in her book The Fleet Street Girls, which tells the inspiring story of female journalists breaking down barriers to journalism in the 1970s and 80s. As a screenwriter, she wrote the 1983 TV film Those Glory Days, which was about a group of girls in 1960s London who were passionate about football and Tottenham Hotspur. https://www.unitedagents.co.uk/julie-welch

Suzanne is the Guardian and Observer's women's football correspondent and author of A Woman's Game: The Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Women's Football (2022), which charts the history of women’s football from its Victorian origins to the present day. It won a Sunday Times Sports Book Award and was a Times Sports Book of the Year https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jun/22/a-womans-game-by-suzanne-w...