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The Busby Babes: Men of Magic
RRP: £9.99
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What do you want from this book?
Review date: 2008-10-05 Rating: 8 out of 10
Potential buyer, you face a key decision: what do you want from a book about the Busby Babes? I'll coem back to that point.
This 2008 reprint of Max Arthur's 1983 book provides a chapter for each player, a format I found very attractive because, being born after 1958, only a few of the players are distinct individuals in my mind - Charlton, Edwards, Taylor and to a lesser extent Byrne and Gregg. The others are (with due respect) just a list of names to me and I hoped this would bring out the players as individuals. The system works up to a point - for example, Mark Jones emerges as a colourful character. However, there are several problems. First, unavoidably, many of the players had only just beguin their adult lives and hence (in a way) there isn't a lot to write about. Second, in an age quite different to our own, these young men seem to have had fairly similar experiences - keen lads, spotted playing for their school, signed by United, into digs, a year in the reserves, and a sudden and unexpected debut.
The third problem is perhaps the most fundamental. Max Arthur is a noted popular historian who has most famously authored books based on recorded interviews with soldiers about their wartime experiences. This book is also based on conversations and interviews, seemingly since Munich. This has two effects. First, rather obviously, this gives most weight to the survivors (even more to the survivors who were willing to speak). For example, Dennis Viollet, Bill Foulkes and Harry Gregg get 44 pages between them, whereas Kenny Morgans, Liam (Billy) Whelan, David Pegg and even Duncan Edwards get four pages each and Geoff Bent only gets two! Second, as has been observed before, "Only the good die young" and it should come as no surprise to learn that nobody wishes to speak ill of the dead. I am not for one moment suggesting by that comment that I believe there is anything serious left unsaid, but I felt I was being presented with the images of the men. Do these images reflect reality? It's probably impossible to say at this distance from the event.
So I come back to my question: what do you want from this book (or any book about the Babes)? I was hoping for something that distinguished the players in my mind, and I was partly disappointed: there just isn't enough about some of them and this makes the book a bit unbalanced. I also wanted a balanced view of them but found 180 pages of non-stop praise a bit much.
I've given it 4 stars because it is as good as a book based on conversations after Munich could be. However, I would have much preferred a book with a wider perspective.
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Reviews
A wonderful tribute to a fantastic team
Review date: 2008-02-01 Rating: 10 out of 10
In his remarkable tribute to Sir Matt Busby's first team of Busby Babes, Max Arthur skilfully interweaves memories of that great team with the personal, poignant and often highly moving testimonies of the players who survived the Munich crash. Taking on the perspectives of the survivors and also profiling players such as Tommy Taylor, Duncan Edwards, Eddie Colman and the others who perished, the book provides an all round, complete view of what many consider the greatest Manchester United team ever. I have read Max Arthur's Forgotten Voices series and he brings to this book the same skills, empathy and deftness of touch employed before, providing an emotionally charged and worthy memorial to that fantastic but tragically short lived Manchester United team. With forewords by both Sir Alex Ferguson and the late Sir Matt Busby, `Busby Babes - Men of Magic' proves a great testament to the spirit of the Babes.
Product Details/Specifications
Authors:
Max Arthur
Recording label: Mainstream Publishing
Manufacturer: Mainstream Publishing
EAN: 9781845963415
Binding: Paperback
Dewey decimal number: 796.3340922
ISBN: 1845963415
Number of items: 1
Number of pages: 192
Publication date: 2008-01-17
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: English (Unknown)
Language: English (Published)