Football Poetry Collection
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We Are Scottish Football by Julie McNeill, Photography by Campbell Ramage; 9781804251577
100 Favourite Football Poems Edited by Alistair Findlay; 9781906307035
Sex, Death and Football by Alistair Findlay; 9781842820223
About We Are Scottish Football:
With a pen dipped in passion, McNeill explores the emotional landscape of football, bringing to life the highs and lows, triumphs and tribulations that define the beautiful game in Scotland. Her verses transport readers to the electric atmosphere of packed stadiums, where every cheer and roar reverberates through the pages.
With eloquence and insight, We Are Scottish Football stands as a poetic tribute, capturing the soul-stirring drama and unwavering devotion that make Scottish football an enduring and enchanting spectacle.
Reviews:
In this unique and vivid collection of poems and photographs Julie McNeill makes sure we don’t forget the impact our footballing history has had on the world. STUART COSGROVE, author & presenter
A must read for any fan of football, history, poetry and Scotland. IAN MAXWELL, CEO SFA
In this wonderful book of poems and photographs Julie McNeill ties together the past and present of the game and highlights some of its outstanding moments, personalities and controversies.ROSE REILLY MBE, World Cup Winning Footballer
A book is born. A star is born. HUGH McMILLAN
About the Author:
JULIE McNEILL is the Poet-in-Residence for St Mirren Football Club Charitable Trust, the only female poet – as far as can be established – attached to a professional football club in the UK, perhaps in the world. She is the Makar for The Hampden Collection, set up to preserve and protect Scotland’s footballing heritage.
Julie’s work has been recently commissioned by BBC Sport Scotland and the Scottish Poetry Library and in 2024 she won The Burrell Collection Hidden Gems poetry competition. Recent poetry collections include Something Small (Drunk Muse Press 2023) and Ragged Rainbows (HybridDreich 2021) and the award winning non-fiction book for children Mission Dyslexia (JKP Books 2021). She spends much of her time working with neurodivergent children and adults.
CAMPBELL RAMAGE is a photographer and picture editor based in the West End of Glasgow. A long-suffering Partick Thistle fan, he can often be found standing in a state of zen-like calm as his team battle it out at the Palace of the Gallus. Away from football, Campbell enjoys wandering the streets of his home city in search of images that capture his eye, and his imagination.
A recurring theme of Campbell’s work is ‘Positivity’. His 2022 portrait exhibition Maryhill is Wonderful won Scottish Parliamentary approval as he sought to highlight the people who make a positive contribution to everyday life in the area.
About 100 Favourite Football Poems:
This collection captures the passion Scots feel about football, covering every aspect of the game, from World Cup heartbreak to one-on-ones with the goalie.
Feel the thump of the tackle, the thrill of victory and the expectation of supporters.
Become immersed in the emotion and personality of the game as these poems reflect human experience in its sheer diversity of feeling and being. The collection brings together popular culture with literature, fan with critic, and brings together subject matters as unlikely as the header and philosophy.
Ranging from the 1580 poem The Bewteis of the Fute-ball to poems by many of Scotland's best-known contemporary poets, including Hugh MacDiarmid, Norman MacCaig, Liz Lochhead and Edwin Morgan, the long and fascinating relationship between Scotland and football has never been encapsulated so well, nor has it meant so much.
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Reviews:
Perhaps verse is the ideal field for football’s dreams to be realised. It certainly works wonders on the pages of this effort collected up by Alistair Findlay. THE LIST
In other countries, football is taken seriously enough, but only in Scotland is the game woven into the warp and weft of cultural life so seamlessly. That becomes clear when you read Findlay’s latest work, 100 Favourite Scottish Football Poems, an edited odyssey through the nation’s cultural history, seen through the prisms of poetry and football. THE TIMES
As an ex-senior oleyer, he kin descrieve the airt o fitba lik nae ither poet I ken o. LALLANS MAGAZINE
About Sex, Death and Football:
Alistair Findlay, author of the acclaimed Shale Voices, takes a measured look at those three most important facets of life - sex, death and, of course, football.
Football has never been a science so much as a heartbeat away from a sclaf, an unlucky bobble, catastrophe - a bit like Sex and Death - and thus a suitable case for poetry. ALISTAIR FINDLAY
Showing great individuality, energy and wit, Findlay creates 'elegies - with edge' in this accessible and uncompromising collection. With his ear for natural human expression and appetite for life, he succeeds in crafting poetry teeming with both humanity and humour. His poems bridge the gap between perceptions of 'high' and popular culture, and tackle with rare insight the breadth of human experience, both sacred and profane.
Reviews:
At the core of these poems is the working class background of Central Scotland and the West of Scotland. They reflect vividly the characters, the drama, the humour and the
traditions of those times. VINCE HALPIN
I like the energy and brio … I think the voice is strong and different and works well. JACKIE KAY
About the Author:
ALISTAIR FINDLAY has had a diverse career, from clay miner to social worker. He has published four previous collections of poetry, including Sex, Death and Football (2003), The Love Songs of John Knox (2006), Dancing with Big Eunice (2010) and Never Mind the Captions (2011).