In Review

21 November 2008 22:47 BST

Northern Soul: The Inside Story of When Wigan Athletic Went to the Premiership by Ed Jones

Published by Time Warner Books, out September 7th, paperback, 279 pages, £10.99

In a nutshell…

Uplifting. Insightful. Interesting. Eventful. Convivial.

What's it all about?

Wigan Athletic represent the 'everyman' club of English football for the purposes of this book – a small-town outfit, traditionally downtrodden as the less auspicious brother of Wigan's real sporting passion, rugby league.

The book follows Paul Jewell's team as they battle it out in their first season in the English top division, although the backroom insights frequently highlight the club's lower division roots and belie its swift rise through the football hierarchy.

The story itself follows many of the sagas that represented Wigan's season - the arrival of the club's first proper international-calibre players, like Henri Camara and Pascal Chimbonda, and how the club deals with the unique issues of having a player like this in the ranks. At the same time the team also had to cope with playing a tight schedule around Christmas in the freezing north-west and combine that with the razzmatazz of a domestic cup final.

Who's it by?

Ed Jones has been a football writer and journalist for several years and has made contributions to the sports columns of a host of daily nationals. His most pertinent job however, must have been as the local football correspondent for the Wigan Reporter.

With such close ties to the area, and the Latics, from back in their less fashionable years, Ed Jones manages to provide an intimate portrayal of life behind the scenes of a traditional local team that has become a Premiership club. His history as a Latics supporter and well-known face clearly helped him fit right in at the JJB Stadium and this frequently comes across in his anecdotes.

As an example…

[After the author was unofficially appointed chief translator for the new French-speaking Wigan imports]:
'Il fait froid,' were Pascal's first words to me – it's cold. 'Is it always cold like this in the middle of August?' he asked.
'This is warm,' I said (it wasn't), 'wait until November and December, then you'll know about cold.'
'I think I'm going to be injured in October, and I'll get fit next spring,' he said, laughing.

Likelihood of becoming a Hollywood blockbuster

If reports are to be believed, a deal is already in place to immortalise the achievements of the Latics' season on film - with an American producer, no less. We could well be seeing the blue-and-white stripes up in lights soon enough. It is, after all, a classic rags-to-riches underdogs tale.

What the others say

"Buy it. Reading it will be the real highlight of a season in which Wigan Athletic did indeed bring 'Northern Soul' to the Premiership." – Bernard Ramsdale, Ye Old Tree & Crown.

"Jones received unprecedented access to the corridors of the JJB Stadium and records the season of wonderment not in hackneyed match-by-match, he-said-this, he-said-that style, but with wit, self-deprecation, insight and knowledge. Peerless." – Martin Smith, Daily Telegraph.

So is it any good?

For many different reasons, this book is a great read – its content and tone is spot-on.

The author manages to become part of the furniture at Wigan Athletic for the whole of what turned out to be an incredibly ground-breaking season. He provides a real insider's view of the day-to-day running of a football team, to the extent that, as a French speaker, he becomes an important point of contact for two of the biggest single-player stories of the 2005/06 season at Wigan (Chimbonda and Camara).

As a supporter of a small local side myself, reading this book gave both a glimpse of life inside a little club but also dared me to dream that one day my team could become the new Wigan Athletic. Through Ed Jones' storytelling it seems the club has never lost sight of its roots – a reassuringly romantic thought coming from the distant celebrity of the modern day Premiership.

8/10

Alistair Potter