A Season on the Med
Football Where the Sun Always Shines
Published on 24. October 2022
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-1-80150-197-2 (ISBN)
Description
A Season on the Med: Riviera Football in Italy and France (With a Trip to Athens for Stan) is a story of football where the sun always shines - with a difference. In the wake of Brexit, writer Alex Wade decamped to Menton, the last town on the Cote d'Azur. During a swim between France and Italy, he realised two things. An array of great football clubs - from Nice, Marseille and Monaco to Genoa, Sampdoria and Spezia - were on his doorstep on the French and Italian Rivieras. Plus his hero, Queens Park Rangers' talisman Stan Bowles, once played on the Med. Wade embarked on a journey of discovery to experience Riviera football over the 2021/22 season, with two questions in mind. Is football on the Med more laid-back, languid and amiable than elsewhere? And could he make it to Athens in a tribute to Bowles? Eloquently written with a blend of reportage, travelogue and memoir, A Season on the Med ends in Brumano, Italy, as Wade captures the spirit of Riviera football and confronts the meaning of heroism.
Reviews / Votes
"Part travelogue, part memoir... an insight into the way football is played and watched in countries and leagues that we in Britain do not always pay much attention to... told in an engaging and charming style. It's not too hard to imagine that you are being regaled over a chilled bottle (or three) of rose, the Med sparkling in the low evening sun in the background." * Times Literary Supplement *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Hove
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 213 mm
Width: 135 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
322 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80150-197-2 (9781801501972)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Alex Wade's first book, Wrecking Machine, was a Sunday Times Sports Book of the Week. Wade went on to write two acclaimed books on surfing, and a novel, Flack's Last Shift. In A Season on the Med he returns to his first love, football, but he doesn't just chronicle his experience of going to games along the French and Italian Rivieras. Instead, Wade, a lawyer as well as a writer and journalist, probes the nature and meaning of hero-worship.