CELTIC: THE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY BOOK REVIEW - October 1995
| If it wasn't for the fact that I'd read some
better ones before Total football began, then by now I'd probably believe that all
football books were as crap as this. It's certainly beginning to look like a classic
style; incompetent hack views club history through rose-tinted glasses while never
actually managing to sound excited. The culprit here is one Graham McColl, and he blazes
his way through the 107 years of stellar thrills and shattering traumas that is the
history of Celtic with all the unputdownable verve of... er... whoever writes the toaster
manuals at Morphy Richards. Pulling off the unlikely trick of making the book a totally sickening read for non-Celtic lovers (completely random, stick-a-pin-in-a-page quote: "McNeill was a magnificent athlete, unbeatable in the air, and an individual of stature.") while still being massively dull for the diehards (the 1967 European Cup victory is treated in exactly the same pedestrian tone reserved elsewhere for tales of narrow third round League Cup triumphs over Stranraer, without even a heading to suggest where the monotone drone of the writing starts to speak of it), the whole thing seems like an utter waste of time until you reach the 50-page appendix at the back, where you find an impressively comprehensive record of every competitive match ever played by the club since their formation in 1888, complete with full team listings and goalscorers. For that, then, a decent score. Almost everything you could ever need to know about Celtic is in here. Just, for God's sake, whoever you support, don't try reading the first 158 pages. VERDICT: A terrible book, but a useful reference library. *** |
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