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Shortlisted for Football Book of the Year (Sports Book Awards)
‘Gripping’ Daily Mail
‘Moving… chronicles two remarkable lives’ Guardian
‘Razor-sharp tactical analysis’ Irish Independent
‘Wilson is a fine, nuanced writer’ Times Literary Supplement
The story of Jack and Bobby Charlton, and a family that characterised English football for decades
In later life Jack and Bobby didn’t get on and barely spoke but the lives of these very different brothers from the coalfield tell the story of late twentieth-century English football: the tensions between flair and industry, between individuality and the collective, between right and left, between middle- and working-classes, between exile and home.
Jack was open, charismatic, selfish and pig-headed; Bobby was guarded, shy, polite and reserved to the point of reclusiveness. They were very different footballers: Jack a gangling central defender who developed a profound tactical intelligence; Bobby an athletic attacking midfielder who disdained systems. They played for clubs who embodied two very different approaches, the familial closeness and tactical cohesion of Leeds on the one hand and the individualistic flair and clashing egos of Manchester United on the other.
Both enjoyed great success as players: Jack won a league, a Cup and two Fairs Cups with Leeds; Bobby won a league title, survived the terrible disaster of the plane crash in Munich, and then at enormous emotional cost, won a Cup and two more league titles before capping it off with the European Cup. Together, for England, they won the World Cup.
Their managerial careers followed predictably diverging paths, Bobby failing at Preston while Jack enjoyed success at Middlesbrough and Sheffield Wednesday before leading Ireland to previously un-imagined heights. Both were financially very successful, but Jack remained staunchly left-wing while Bobby tended to conservatism. In the end, Jack returned to Northumberland; Bobby remained in the North-West.
Two Brothers tells a story of social history as well as two of the most famous football players of their generation.
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Reviews
Wilson skilfully interweaves the stories of brothers with polar opposite personalities who also happened to be two of the most iconic footballing figures in the last century, using their respective career trajectories to tell a broader story of what it said about English and (sometimes) Irish society of the time of their heydays
Wilson is a fine, nuanced writer
Tells a familar, yet extraordinary, tale exceptionally well, illuminated and refreshed by Wilson's particular perspectives and insights
Explores the careers and personalities of Bobby and Jack Charlton, who we discover could not have been more different, and Wilson is meticulous in providing all manner of nuggets
Gripping
A book that Jonathan Wilson was born to write... He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the game... There is much poignancy in their stories
Razor-sharp tactical analysis and an intriguing angle of its own
Compelling... gets to the heart of Bobby and Jackie
A powerful chronicle of the transformation of English soccer and society through the prism of two very different characters
This is a social history, yet surprisingly moving as it chronicles two remarkable lives