The Kilburn Social Club

Robert Hudson

Kilburn Social Club is a unique football club made up of opera singers, academics and an African freedom fighter. The sudden death of her father puts medical student, Aisling, in charge and in conflict with sister Esther over the running of the club - and in competition for the affections of captain, Brian Guinevere. A funny read as hero meets villain, idealism clashes with greed and dodgy agents and part of the story is told by a football!

Extract

A great man once wrote that to say football crowds pay to see teams of overpaid hirelings kick a ball around is to say that a violin is wood and catgut, and Hamlet is so much paper and ink. Fandom makes the spectator a critic and a partisan, elated, bitter, triumphant and downcast by turns as the ball shapes Iliads and Odysseys. It makes him a member of a larger community for an hour and a half, escaped from the machinery of his daily life, one with his neighbours, thumping shoulders and swapping judgements like lords of the earth..

Parallels