The late Brian CLOUGH is one of the managerial legends in English and European football. He conquered England and Europe with relatively small unheralded sides. This autobiography gives us glimpses into how he did it. An excerpt here:
"...There was the small matter of 270,000 pounds for Peter Shilton (goalkeeper) from Stoke. We were 'mad' in many people's eyes to spend a record fee on him...History now tells us that Shilton was worth twice the price. We were not mad at all; we were magic...
"...there was a familiar, tried and trusted formula - a goalkeeper, two centrehalves in this instance, and a centre forward. There they are. There's the framework, the backbone, those are the key components in the skeleton of any side"
I love the succinct tribute of Sir Alex Ferguson to CLOUGHIE here: "To win back-to-back European Cups with Nottingham forest has to go down as one of the finest managerial achievements of all time"
- Henry Ozogula
Two things came to my mind after I read this novel (which was recommended to me) and I did some research on the author; firstly here is an African author who deserves the Nobel award for Literature, and secondly, the author is also an excellent painter/artist. The latter is very much evident from this work, the start of chapters and the profound descriptions of painting and its arsenal, so to speak. The author certainly vividly tells his story (ies) and we become highly engrossed. We see the plight of women again here, suppressed but still used as sex objects with the (white) fathers completely uninterested in the products of such 'illicit' unions, the children. It is a brilliant novel written by a man who understands South African history and politics very well. Mda's profile shows that he has published like a dozen or more superb novels over the decades. Perhaps in Africa only the hallowed Ngugi has come near such prolificacy. So why should Mda not be recognised for something like the Nobel award?
- Madolyn Chukwu
