The Best of Charles Buchan's 'Football Monthly

After its launch in 1951 Charles Buchan's Football Monthly became a firm favourite amongst football fans of all ages, reaching sales of over 100,000 at its peak. It was in effect the first football 'glossy', with hand-tinted photographs on the cover and back page, some artistically vibrant as images in their own right. The magazine ran a boy's club, had a Dick Barton-style cartoon (Rex Martin) and regular articles by celebrities of the day. This colourful gift book is a selection of the best of this legendary magazine, spanning its 20-year existence. It reproduces, in facsimile format, articles, interviews, photographs, letters and advertisements from the magazine. It is a reminder of what many would consider to be football's glory days, when footballers weren't the highly paid media stars they are today, when Brylcreem was the only nod to fashion and when small boys made goalposts out of sweaters. The book will appeal to the football nostalgia market, but also to all soccer fans who are tired of today's rampant commercialism, preening players and Russian billionaires.