Martyn Bedford
Clough’s Wake
Most Leeds United fans of a certain age have a Brian Clough anecdote. Here’s mine: it’s August, 1974, and I’m a 14-year-old autograph hunter, loitering as the first-team squad troops off the training pitch at Elland Road. The players are unfriendly – a scowling Billy Bremner, a sullen Allan Clarke, a grumpy Johnny Giles head straight for the dressing room. But the new manager lingers among the throng of supporters to pose for snapshots, sign his name, enjoy the banter. Eh, you’ll need a wide-angle lens to fit my big head in. He even helps a woman to resolve a camera glitch before posing again alongside her son. My turn next; I get Cloughie’s autograph, a smile and a shoulder squeeze. I can’t stand the bastard, but in that instant I’m a little in love with him.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'Thirkell was a product of her time and her class. For her there are no sacred cows, barring those that win ribbons at the Barchester Agricultural.'
The novelist Angela Thirkell is due a revival, says Patricia T O'Conner (£).
https://literaryreview.co.uk/good-gad
'Only in Britain, perhaps, could spy chiefs – conventionally viewed as masters of subterfuge – be so highly regarded as ethical guides.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/the-spy-who-taught-me
In this month's Bookends, @AdamCSDouglas looks at the curious life of Henry Labouchere: a friend of Bram Stoker, 'loose cannon', and architect of the law that outlawed homosexual activity in Britain.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/a-gross-indecency