Book review - 32 Programmes by Dave Roberts

Seven game in to this season and, with at least one FA Cup game to come, Norwich fans have 32 programmes left to get a complete set.
And, by coincidence, 32 Programmes, by Dave Roberts is a great book that I finished reading this morning and it’s a cracking read that I’m sure will be enjoyed by City fans.
Norwich don’t get a mention in the book, which, simply put, is one man looking back on the games that shaped his football-watching CV linked of course to the match day programmes he picked up along the way.
The reason for the book’s title is because author Roberts had been set a challenge by his second wife to cull over a thousand programmes down to just one box for a move to the USA, and this is the story of why he chose the ones he did, each triggering a memory from part of his life.
Football fans will strike a chord with loads of feelings and emotions that jump out in this book – there’s the games of Roberts’ youth when he first purchased a programme, tales of going round to Denis Law’s house to get an autograph, trying to impress girls and one of the best chapters is when he went all the way to Nottingham Forest just to get a programme for the school bully.
As Robert’s gets older women, drink and random decisions figure more and more – not to excess by any means, but as regular themes on why this fan who doesn’t support one league club, ends up at different grounds.
Certain teams get more mention than others, and even though most of the action in the book is a generation before my own, the nostalgic references to World Cups and Cup finals are great. Some of the recall is brilliant and at times it really feels like you actually know Roberts, such is the depth he goes into.
The one shame is that the book is so detailed in the early stages with two or three games a season and you really get a sense of Roberts’ change from boy to youth to man, with 18 years covering the first 29 programmes.
Then there are just a couple of entries for the 1980s as we learn that Roberts’ life took a major downturn in the 1990s. The last chapter is all about the 32^nd programme, and without giving away, the reader learns it is the most important one of all, and I admit, I could feel my eyes welling up reading the last chapter.

Big respect to outgoing Programme Monthly editor John Litster who is retiring after 30 years

After a staggering 363 issues Programme Monthly founder and editor John Litster is hanging up his keyboard and stepping down as editor of the monthly bible for programme collectors.
Scot John, who lives in Norwich, recently celebrated 30 years in the hot seat of the magazine which features news, articles and features on all that's going on in the football programme world.
As a former newspaper editor myself I know the huge amount of work and effort that goes into each edition and although I've far from been a regular reader over the last three decades, I've always been impressed when I've picked up the magazine.
Recently I've written the odd article and featured both my books in the fine publication and I was really proud that the final book to be reviewed under the John Litster regime in the Bookshelf book was my novel, Memorabilia, which is fundamentally about collecting football programmes.
John is selling parts of his collection and will still be involved in the world of collecting, just not spending hours upon hours each month editing Programme Monthly.
Good luck to the new production team, it's a great cult magazine that's done superbly well to last for such a long time.

Programme Monthly at risk unless new editor(s) can be found

Norfolk-based magazine Programme Monthly is close to folding up unless someone steps into replace outgoing editor John Litster.
Litster, who has run the magazine single-handidly since its inception in 1981 is keen to step down from the editor’s chair and has appealed for new blood to take the popular title into a new direction.
Programme Monthly and Football Collectable, to give the monthly magazine its full title has built up a cult readership of thousands over the last 30 years with its mix of articles on the world of football programme collecting.
Editor Litster will appeal for new help in the March issue of the magazine due out later this month.
He has confirmed there are three different roles in running the magazine, which has just celebrated its 30th anniversary, which he currently performs and these could be filled by up to three people.
Litster said: “Once I find someone to take on these tasks, I intend to have no future part in the magazine’s activities, and, frankly, the sooner that happens the better, both from my own point of view, and for the good of the magazine, which requires ideas and new directions.
“I am afraid that the imperative is to find someone, or some people, to do the actual work in making these changes and improvements. If no-one comes forward, I regret that the likely outcome is that I will close down the magazine.”
Contact John Litster at progm@hotmail.com if you can help.

Here's the cover of my new novel, Memorabilia

I finished writing my new novel earlier this month and this week I've got to see the front cover for the first time.

The yellow and green is of course a reference to Norwich City as they figure throughout the book. I'm sure any man aged between 30 and 60 will love it as will anyone who has ever had the desire to collect anything.

More news on the novel when it's out in springtime.

Panini Championship stickers are cool and collectable

Great news for fans of Championship clubs – the new Panini sticker collection, Championship 2011 is now on sale.
I suppose we should be really grateful that Panini, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year bothers to take an annual look at life in the second tier and I for one am thrilled.
It’s only the last couple of years that we’ve had Panini sticker collections for the Championship – so what’s this year’s like?
Well all 24 clubs are featured, they get a page each in the album which each follows the same pattern. There’s the shiny club badge, the home and away kit and a team sticker, plus the team captain which is consists of two parts (I got Paul McKenna’s legs in my first packet!). There are stickers for two star players and 16 featured players from each team, which are split in two like the old Scottish stickers in the Panini albums of the mid-1980s.
That’s the only real shame – that each sticker doesn’t contain one player, but with 386 in total that may be a good thing as full size stickers would mean they’d need to be nearer 600 to feature all the players contained in this collection.
The stickers are 50p a packet which seems a lot these days, but that’s about a sixth the price of a programme and 25 years ago that was still the same ratio when stickers were around 10p a packet.
As well as the 24 clubs, there are stickers for the league trophy, a special Panini anniversary sticker and 24 international stars (one for each club), which gets a little tenuous at times – Owen Garvan is Ipswich’s (0 caps), David Somma is Leeds’ (0 caps) and Watford’s is Scott Loach (0 caps).
Still, it’s a cracking collection and one that any fan of a Championship club will no doubt treasure.