Stand Up and Fight

Sits comfortably among the best books ever written on Irish sport. Not unlike the classic Seabiscuit in style, it takes the countless threads from the day Munster beat the All Blacks and weaves them together word perfectly.

MALACHY CLERKIN, SUNDAY TRIBUNE

This book allowed me to live the match as it happened. There is all the vulnerability, the doubts, the drive that made that day epic. These feelings still resonate in the Munster of today.

KEITH WOOD

The most engaging book on rugby that I've read in many a year - well-researched, splendidly put together with a deft control of narrative. The craft of the novelist with the graft of the hack - it's a winning formula.

MICK CLEARY, DAILY TELEGRAPH

A modern classic . . . The momentum of the book never slackens. I'm not Irish and I don't know a great deal about rugby, but I found this book absolutely riveting and frequently moving. 12,000 people attended the match; 100,000 claimed to have been there. Readers of this book will feel that they were . . . The kind of read that you devour in socking great chunks.

ANDREW BAKER, DAILY TELEGRAPH

New Zealand came, saw and were conquered. English's approach has depth, strength, pace, power and end product.

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Alan English has assembled his material in such a way as to make the build-up read more like a thriller than history. Expertly marshalling his witnesses - players, officials, supporters - he also manages to convey Munster's unique, bred-in-the-bone working-class passion for rugby at a time when it was said you had to be a doctor, Protestant or Dubliner to stand much chance of playing for Ireland. Perhaps English's finest hour, or 80 minutes, is his account of the match itself. The tale of that day and its heroes has often been told, even dramatised, but nobody has told it better, and probably never will.

SIMON REDFERN, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

We were there too: Thomond, Halloween 1978, Munster and the All Blacks. Or at least it feels that way after reading Alan English magnificently convey the lead-up, atmosphere and drama of that game so many wish and claim they were at. But as much as that win was something of a one-off, there was nothing overnight about it.

English brings us through the genesis of a Munster rivalry and fascination with the All Blacks, how rugby captured the heart and imagination of the city and people of Limerick, and the education of a coach in Tom Kiernan, all which culminate in a day of days. Thankfully it is now suitably chronicled in the rugby book of rugby books.

KIERAN SHANNON, IRISH EXAMINER IRELAND'S 40 GREATEST SPORTS BOOKS

The dedication of the amateur players of the time is wonderfully captured in Alan English's exceptional book.

MATT COOPER, IRISH EXAMINER

A compelling dissection of Munster's celebrated 1978 win over the All Blacks.

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For those of us centrally involved it drags us back in time as if the intervening 27 years haven't happened at all. English has left no stone unturned. Brilliant in its portrayal, Stand Up and Fight is the definitive account. It captures the essence of what makes Munster rugby and its provincial team so unique. I highly recommend it and its appeal will extend way beyond the rugby aficionados.

TONY WARD, IRISH INDEPENDENT

The success of the book is the richness of its characters and the tales they have to tell. It is from another life, another era, and the deeper we get into the blandness of the professional era the more we will appreciate how it used to be. This book slaps a preservation order on that time. Read it.

BRENDAN FANNING, SUNDAY INDEPENDENT

It is not so much the game itself but the stories around it that compel. English celebrates the day without sentimentalising it.

OBSERVER SPORT MONTHLY

A terrific combination of intelligent reportage and open-eyed myth-making.

ROBBIE HUDSON, SUNDAY TIMES

The story of the day may be dog-eared but there is nothing jaded about the way English fleshes it out through the reminiscences of many of the principals. An apposite celebration of a great and historic occasion, this is an excellent book, rugby or otherwise.

JOHN O'SULLIVAN, IRISH TIMES

English weaves a rich tapestry . . . The background is deftly stitched in as the book builds up to the day, then the author applies his precision needlepoint to bring together all the leading protagonists. If this book sells as it should, English can add another few hundred thousand claimants to the 'I was there' brigade, so skilfully and diligently has this Munsterman recorded the details of that historic day.

DAVID LLEWELLYN, INDEPENDENT

Wonderfully researched and evocative . . . This book is as much a celebration of the All Blacks' legend and a discourse on Limerick's socioeconomic and rugby background as anything else.

GERRY THORNLEY, IRISH TIMES

What sets Stand Up and Fight apart from the vast, vast majority of books written about Irish sporting achievement is that it goes far beyond recounting what happens between the white lines during a match. The reader is given an extraordinary feel of what it must have been like to have been present on the day. But be warned: once you pick up Stand Up and Fight you won't be able to put it down.

COLM KINSELLA, LIMERICK LEADER

A fantastic story . . . those fifteen Munster men, along with coach Tom Kiernan, opened the door of self-belief for a nation and Alan English has captured its full meaning and significance in this book.

JOHN COLLINS, IRISH WORLD

As much a social history as a book about one game, this is sports writing at its finest. More than 100,000 people claimed to have been at 12,000 capacity Thomond Park when Tom Kiernan's Munster laid low Mourie's 1978 All Blacks: they'll all read this to get the real inside story.

SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY

Alan English conducted more than 150 interviews during his research and the result is a marvellously evocative page-turner.

ALAN PEAREY, RUGBY WORLD BOOK OF THE MONTH

268 pages on ancient Limerick's most unforgettably florid 80 minutes ever. Irresistible.

FRANK KEATING, GUARDIAN

Enthralling . . . on the way to relating the story of a single match, English segues into moving social and personal histories, uncovers astounding detail and then, finally, offers the chance to relive the action itself through the eyes of the key participants . . . It is a chance to savour the most unique occasion in the history of Irish sport, and because so much has changed, one that will never come again.

DAVE HANNIGAN, EVENING ECHO

Outstandingly researched and written. English weaves into the book the history of Irish and Munster rugby.

JOSEPH ROMANOS, LISTENER (NEW ZEALAND)

A seminal account.

CHRIS BARCLAY, NEW ZEALAND HERALD

Alan English has done a top job outlining the build-up and post-match events as well as the match in such a way that the book will not only appeal to rugby fans but anyone with a soft spot for the Irish.

SHANE HURNDELL, HAWKE'S BAY TODAY

It's the sort of book that makes you wish you were there . . . Should be on the bookshelf of any Munster fan and deserves a greater audience.

RUGBY TIMES

Excellent . . . captures the intensity of battle; Gerry McLoughlin in particular provides a unique insight into life at the sharp end of top-flight rugby.

PETER SHARKEY, BELFAST TELEGRAPH

A tale that has been recounted on many occasions in the past, yet English still manages to make it seem fresh. Arguably the sports book of the year.

JAMES LAFFEY, WESTERN PEOPLE

This was a sporting shock writ incredibly large and Alan English has done a brilliant job of recording that unbelievable tale in fascinating detail. This is a book that any rugby fan should 'jackal' into their grasp by any means necessary, but its appeal should cross all sporting divides.

KENNY ARCHER, IRISH NEWS

English brilliantly captures the atmosphere surrounding the match. He also provides a fascinating socio-economic cameo of the Limerick of that time . A classic in sports writing.

J. ANTHONY GAUGHAN, IRISH CATHOLIC

It's the sort of book that makes you wish you were there . . . Should be on the bookshelf of any Munster fan and deserves a greater audience.

RUGBY TIMES

Stand Up and Fight was first published in 2005, some 27 years after the match, but it has such an immediacy that it feels like it was written in the dressing room . . . It will stand forever as both testament and a work of literature, one that captures a moment in time but also a universal tale as old as David and Goliath.

DONAL O'DONOGHUE, RTE GUIDE

One of the best five books ever published on rugby. Only 80 minutes of a dull Munster day in 1978, when the local heroes beat New Zealand. But what a literary feast that win gave rise to. This classic re-wrote the manual for rugby books by mocking the drive towards unsatisfying surface rubbish. It is of supreme depth and colour and after reading it you will finally grasp Munster, and...