SHANKLY’S VILLAGE: FOOTBALL HISTORY IN THE MAKING

Pitch Publishing is a fantastic imprint – they do all the great Got, Not Gots and retro sports titles.

James Brown, The Late Tackle, talkSPORT

Pitch Publishing show the way for enterprising sports book publishers and remains a beacon of hope for sports authors aspiring or established.

The Sports Bookshelf.com

Pitch Publishing, an outfit whose "pitch perfect" commissioning of boxing material stands as a rebuke to more established houses

Boxing Monthly

Pitch capture the real spirit of sport with entertaining and clever ideas. They work out what the aficianado would want to read, then deliver it with great verve.

Paul Hayward, The Daily Telegraph

Pitch have enabled me to write in the ways I enjoy most. Their production support is superb, delivering eye-catching designs, attentive proof-reading, energetic marketing and helpful advice.

Tim Quelch, Bent Arms & Dodgy Wickets, Underdog!

Pitch are willing to back out-of-the-blue and innovative ideas and turn them into viable, entertaining books. They do so with great presentation and editorial flair.

Justin Parkinson, Then Came Massacre

Pitch saw the potential in my story, used their expertise to polish it, published it and helped inspire thousands around the world to get into triathlon.

Andy Holgate, Can’t Swim, Can’t Ride, Can’t Run

The process of working with Pitch to produce Picking up the Threads was enjoyable and rewarding, with the final edition surpassing expectations and becoming a resounding success.

John Chandler, Picking up the Threads

Pitch will take a chance on books that other publishers won't and realise that interest in football extends beyond the Premier League and the top 20 countries in the FIFA rankings.

Steve Menary, Outcasts!

Pitch have the vision to look beyond the obvious, seeking out interesting ideas and subjects and matching them with the right target audience.

David Tossell, Tony Greig, The Great English Final, Grovel!

Pitch have been an absolute joy to work with, contributing their passion, expertise, knowledge and experience to help produce a brilliant book.

Sam Pilger, Ashes Match of My Life

Pitch took our original concept and further enhanced it, using their knowledge, experience and expertise, and helped make Got, Not Got one of the football books of the year for 2011.

Derek Hammond, Got, Not Got

Pitch bought into the concept of development through football, channeling profits and proceeds from Eleven into helping some of the most disadvantaged young people in the world.

Steve Fleming, Eleven

In the highly competitive world of sport publishing,
Pitch have consistently demonstrated the happy
knack of spotting, nurturing and promoting winners.

Neil Dunkin, Anfield of Dreams

13 Oct

SHANKLY’S VILLAGE: FOOTBALL HISTORY IN THE MAKING

As David ‘The Damned United’ Peace notes: “Shankly’s Village is not only an important book about a lost community, its football teams and its history, but in its rebirth with the Glenbuck Academy, a magnificent inspiration of what football could be and mean again… it has so many great stories… very moving and powerful scenes, and is really well written.”

Adam Powley & Robert Gillan’s book represents a major new addition to the written history of British football. Evocative of a lost time and place, Shankly’s Village tells the story of a tiny Scottish mining village that spawned more professional footballers per capita than any other community.

Every football fan with a sense of history will be intrigued by the legacy of the lost village – by ‘The Extraordinary Life and Times of Glenbuck and its Famous Sons’.

The most comprehensive, exhaustive, and fully researched study of Glenbuck, birthplace of Bill Shankly
Never-seen-before detail on Bill Shankly’s playing career and his life after leaving Liverpool
Exclusive in-depth interviews with Ian St John and Ian Callaghan, providing fresh and revealing insight into their relationships with Bill Shankly
The truth about the ‘football is more important than life and death’ quote
A sweeping portrait of football and social history across Britain, from the birth of the game to the modern day
The former mining village was home to over 50 professional footballers; per capita, the equivalent would be a small non-league club in London producing nearly 250,000 pros over a 40-year period
Unprecedented coverage on each Glenbuck footballer and the clubs they played for
Detailed chapters on FA-Cup and League-title winners, their remarkable careers and lives
Fascinating interviews with relatives, former villagers, eyewitnesses and experts on a whole range of clubs, stories, and related subjects
Packed with detail, stories, anecdotes and insight.

‘As somebody who cherished the friendship of my great fellow Ayrshireman Bill Shankly, I am delighted that the story of the remarkable mining village that produced him is being vividly told. Physically, Glenbuck has been expunged but its name will always have resonance for anyone interested in the importance of football to the working-class communities of what used to be Britain's industrial areas.’
– Hugh McIlvanney

Click here for more information, or to read a sample from Shankly’s Village: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Glenbuck and its Famous Sons.