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Union Jock

  • Aidan Smith

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Can a Scotsman ever support the Auld Enemy? Find out in Aidan Smith's brilliantly funny new history of a centuries-old rivalry.July 30, 1966. Bobby Moore is lifting the Jules Rimet trophy, Denis Law is playing golf, and a young boy in Edinburgh is being taught the most important lesson of his life: no matter who England are playing, you support the other lot. If the opposition have a dodgy human rights record, or are cruel to wasps, or can't even be located on a large-format map - too bad. You support the other lot. Forty years on, and Aidan Smith has done a pretty good job of supporting the other lot. But these days he should be old enough, and ugly enough, to be above petty, playground-formed sporting squabbles. Besides, the World Cup is coming, Scotland haven't made it, and he's about to marry an Englishwoman. Maybe it's a sign. But can a Scotsman ever cheer for 'Ingerland'? In Union Jock, Aidan Smith investigates the age-old England-Scotland emnity, both on and off the football field. The Scots may have suffered at the hands of the Auld Enemy for centuries - Braveheart, Culloden, Jimmy Hill calling David Narey's goal a "toe-poke" (against Brazil in the 1982 World Cup, top right-hand corner) - but now they're a nation on the rise, with a spanking new parliament to prove it. But what do the fans, players, politicians, and Sassenach invaders really think about their English neighbours? Would supporting England be a denial of their Scottishness? Join Aidan Smith on his quest to put an end to centuries of not-so-friendly rivalry. That's if the Scots don't get him first. Or the English.

Genres

  • Nonfiction
  • Sports & Recreations
  • Sports spectators
  • Soccer
  • Scotland, foreign relations
  • England, foreign relations, scotland
  • Soccer fans
  • International relations
  • Relations
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About the author

  • Aidan Smith

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    0 ratings · 9 works

Editions

  • Edition cover

    Random House Publishing Group, Yellow Jersey

    2008

  • Edition cover

    Penguin Random House

    2009

  • Edition cover

    Penguin Random House

    2008

  • Edition cover

    Penguin Random House

    2008

Edition cover

Yellow Jersey Press

January 22, 2008