I am the Gloryhunter by Spencer Austin
At the beginning of the 2008/09 season, Austin randomly picked an English football team to support. Whoever they were, wherever they were, he vowed to go and live there; become a part of the club, its fans and the local area. When his new team lost, he moved on to follow the team who beat them. Wallop. What a season. From August to May, kick off to glory...I am The Gloryhunter. Starting randomly at Grimsby Town, Spencer transferred his allegiance to the winning team in each game he watched throughout the season. His travels took him the length and breadth of Britain and along the way he sought to fall back in love with his country by discovering real England from the nooks and crannies of clubs from Grimsby to Bournemouth, Scunthorpe to Swindon, Darlington to Brentford, Swindon to Luton to Chester and many more. During an incredible season in which he never lost a game Spencer scored the first goal at Brentford's (as yet unconstructed) new stadium, became Britain's northernmost cockney, took a bet from Stan Bowles, played football with girls (and took one in the nads for the team) and for no reason in particular, ate the grass from as many Football League pitches as he could. *** Nominated for Best New Writer at the British Sports Book Awards 2010 ***
The football supporter's story of a season genre has been well mined: man follows ups and downs of his team, man visits every League ground with a fridge on his head, and so onBut Spencer Austin has found a new angle. Having despaired of his beloved Spurs he gives away his season ticket and decides to support a team picked out of a hat, living in the area and going to all their games until they are beaten, at which point he will switch allegiance to their victors until they in turn lose. Austin's adjective-rich style takes a bit of getting used to, as does his inventive spelling, but his evident empathy with the fans he meets along the way is infectious, and encounters with the likes of Stan Bowles, the ex-safecracker and former owner of Darlington George Reynolds, and the Swebees, Brentford's Swedish fan club, add to the narrative. A beer-soaked, curry-stained odyssey. - The Independent
Spencer Austin is a television producer who spent his formative years in Walthamstow (going to school with East 17 and playing for the same football club as David Beckham are small items of trivia he churns out at dinner parties). In his teens he won the Waltham Forest Guardian Young Sports Journalist of the Year and subsequently worked for Leyton Orient Football Club. At 21 he fell violently into stand-up comedy and ended up performing as part of a double act on stage and screen with very little applause. But it did result in being offered a job as a TV researcher at LWT, where he worked closely with Jeremy Beadle and legendary writer Denis Norden for a few years. He wrote and produced a number of TV pilots featuring talent such as Leigh Francis and Edgar Wright before Nasty Nigel Lythgoe noticed and took him under his wing. From there he went on to devise and/or freelance produce shows (Celebrity Stitch-Up, Your Face or Mine, Gagging For It, RI:SE, Rajan and his Evil Hypnotists) that have been sold in the UK and internationally. He formed Hideous Productions and very quickly created a show called 24 Hours With... for ITV1, as well as selling it to 11 countries all over the world. He now lives on the Isle of Dogs with no-one but himself.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781848183995 |
| ISBN 10 | 1848183992 |
| Title | I am the Gloryhunter |
| Author | Spencer Austin |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Pitch Publishing Ltd |
| Year published | 2009-11-16 |
| Number of pages | 278 |
| Prizes | Short-listed for British Sports Book Awards: Best New Writer 2010 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |