"A couple of months before my father dad died, I told him that I'd agreed a deal to write a biography of Brian Clough. His memory had gone by then, but when I asked if he remembered Clough, he looked at me like I was an idiot. 'Of course I do,' he snapped, and mentioned a hat-trick Clough had scored for Sunderland against Grimsby in 1962. He had no idea what he had for lunch."
- Jonathan Wilson, Acknowledgements

That personal and compelling quote set the stage for a brilliant portrayal of a legendary player and coach in English football. This book mines the heart, spirit and soul of Brian Howard Clough. From his childhood in Middlesbrough, to his career-ending injury at Sunderland, to the early days with Derby County at the Baseball Ground, the brief stay at Brighton, and the ill-fated six weeks with Leeds United, to the glory days at Nottingham Forest, Mr. Wilson paints a complete portrait.

Organized Format
This book is organized into five parts that chronologically span Mr. Clough's life from 1935 to 2004 (Part I: 1935 to 1962; Part II: 1962 to 1972; Part III: 1972-1974; Part IV: 1975 to 1982; Part V: 1982 to 2004.) There is a bibliography section along with an extensively detailed index. The author also included three sections of compelling photographs. This biography is precisely 550 pages in length before the ending sections. Each part begins with a provocative quote. My favorite was by Thomas Mann translated from the German, "We come from the darkness and we go into darkness, between lie experiences." Part V, page 450.

Clough was the son of a Middlesbrough sugar-boiler, Joe, who worked at Garnett's sweet factory. His mother, Sally, managed their household with clockwork efficiency. Brian Clough was the fifth of eight surviving children. From a young age, his world was a ball and the game of football was in his family's and town's respective DNA: "So intrinsic was the sport to the fabric of the town that ICI, the major employer on Teesside, changed shift patterns to fit around Middlesbrough's home matches." Page 6.

An Incredible Level of Detail
The author conducted approximately 200 interviews for this book. If you have read Mr. Wilson's columns and previous books, you are accustomed to his penchant for detailed coverage whether it be the esoterica of tactical formations or the encyclopedic history of players, countries, teams and leagues. This book provided the author with a platform to use his formidable literary skills with a single focus: the life of one extraordinary man. But how the author examined the life of the protagonist was striking.

The level of detail was comprehensive. From the minute details of far-flung matches of yesteryear (the research in this book would tell you more than a Google search on every match Clough ever played or managed), to assorted tidbits from his life. For example, the favorite pre-game beverage of a 16 year-old Clough? "A lemonade." (Page 17) Or during Clough's England U-23 debut against Scotland at Ibrox: "... he played so poorly that he was mocked by the train driver at Darlington as he changed on his way back to Middlesbrough." Page 33

Another example from an England fixture in the former Soviet Union, "His room-mate, Bobby Charlton, experienced in trips behind the iron curtain, advised him to take plenty of chocolate to eat, advice for which he was grateful when his first meal in Moscow consisted of a bowl of clear soup at the bottom of which lay a raw egg..." Page 47

A bad roof and financial loss from one of Clough's first management jobs (Hartlepools): "Clough had a tiny office, the roof of which leaked." Page 119 "A month after Clough's arrival, the club announced its financial results from the previous season, which showed Pools had made a loss of £19,792." Page 124 An example of Clough's take no prisoners attitude on transgressions:

"Later in the season, Burns (Kenny) found an envelope containing a fine, a 'red tree' as Forest players came to know them, because the club badge was stamped on the corner, waiting for him at half-time because he'd played a square ball across his own penalty area." Page 375

If you enjoy the history, culture and local color of post-war English football, you will experience the mother lode in this book.

Pictures
Most, but not all of the images, are black and white reflective of Clough's playing era. The author included pictures from Clough's youth at Middlesbrough through his sunset years at Nottingham Forest. My favorite was a black-and-white image of father (holding a squash racket), son (Nigel), a running dog and Terry Wilson.

Notable Quotes
On his brief yet etched-in-stone legacy at Sunderland:
"Growing up as a Sunderland fan, I could never quite understand why he was so popular, how a player who had played only a season and a half for us could have had such an impact. I now realise that the brevity is the point. Nobody had time to get frustrated with him; there was no no long tailing off into retirement or a sense of betrayal as he joined another club." Jonathan Wilson, Acknowledgements

On the school of football:
"I don't have any O-levels, I don't have any A-levels, and when my children chastise me and give me stick about my lack of this, I put my European Cup medals on the table, my Championship medals. I've got a table full. They're my O-levels and A-levels." Brian Clough, Page 11

On Clough the player:
"He was a brilliant striker of a moving ball. His timing was perfect. It was a miracle if he shot over the bar. He used to have his knee always at the right angle to the ground. If I'd thrown a hand grenade over, he'd have volleyed it. That was his thinking." Billy Day, page 37

On the injury that ended his playing career:
"As he blacked out on the icy mud in the corner of the penalty area at the Fulwell End, leaving behind the first period of his life and emerging with desperate, painful uncertainty into the second, he heard (Bob) Stokoe shouting, 'He's only coddin' ref.' They were words Clough would never forget. 'I had a joke with my sons,' he said, 'that if they got naughty I'd send them upstairs to their room to throw darts at Bob Stokoe's picture, Clough said. If only he had been coddin', but the referee, Kevin Howley, himself from Middlesbrough, knew Clough well. 'He doesn't cod, not this lad,' he replied. He was grimly correct." Page 96

On his Jekyll and Hyde personality:
"I spoke to Brian and a bit had been said about John McGovern who'd just got into the team... I said to Clough I'd looked at McGovern and I couldn't see what he saw in him. He said, 'That's why I'm a manager and you're a reporter.'" Doug Weatherall, The Mail, page 132.

"... And there beside the bed was a lovely bunch of roses. It was a very thoughtful thing but what made it especially so to do it when he was spending the biggest fee in British football buying David Nish." Doug Weatherall, The Mail, page 234, on what Clough sent the journalist's wife, Edna, after her heart surgery.

On leaving Derby County:
"I'll tell you why I'm going. My knees and elbows are sore from all the crawling that Peter (Taylor) and I have been forced to do these last three months. Only two things have kept us here for so long. First and foremost, the players; secondly, the supporters." Page 259

On Brian Clough by his eternal rival, Don Revie:
"Clough is the last man I would like to be stranded on a desert island with." Page 299

On the job he never had as England manager:
"People wonder what kind of an England manager Cloughie would have turned out to be. There's only one answer. A bloody good one. We would have been one of the most positive, exciting sides of all time if I'd been in charge." Page 385

On his sense loyalty to certain players:
"Clough was supportive throughout calling Dryden (Stuart at Nottingham Forest charge with theft) from Canaries, where he was coaching the England youth team, as soon as the charge was announced, then sitting in the public gallery for each day of the trial... When he was bailed pending an appeal, it was Clough who drove Dryden home. At his best, Clough could be ferociously loyal." Page 415

On Clough's methods to relax his players during foreign travel:
"Clough took them (Nottingham Forest) on a tour of Amsterdam's red-light district. He had once, on a pre-season trip, taken them to sex club; on this occasion he restricted himself with having Taylor (Peter) perform a charade of trying to negotiate a group discount at a brothel." Page 422

On the final straw for his former colleague, Peter Taylor:
"Clough continued to attack Taylor in the papers, saying at one point that if he saw him on the A52, he would run him over. 'No one will know how my wife and daughter suffered over those remarks. It hurt more than anything in all my years with Brian. He did it out of pure spite..." Page 467

A tribute from a former player, Roy Keane:
"He may have been a remote figure day to day on the training ground, but on match days his presence, and his eye for detail, made the difference." Page 507

Conclusion
"I was asked in an interview to sum up Brian in three words. I think he would be insulted to be summed up in three volumes." Martin O'Neil, page 546

I believe that Mr. Clough would have been insulted if anyone else besides Jonathan Wilson summed him up in three words, three sentences or three volumes. The author man-marked Clough in a literary sense in ways that few could have against the legendary center forward during his brief prime on the pitch or the manager who won more medals than O or A levels.

My Rating
5 out of 5 stars

I would like to thank Jessica Gulliver of the Orion Publishing Group LTD in London for her kind assistance.

Please Note
I received a complementary review copy of the book but was not obligated to provide a positive evaluation.

About the Author
Jonathan Wilson is the editor of The Blizzard, Britain's only football quarterly. He is a columnist for World Soccer and writes regularly for the Guardian, the Independent, Champions magazine and Sports Illustrated. He is the critically acclaimed author of Behind the Curtain: Travels in Eastern European Football, Sunderland: A Club Transformed and Inverting the Pyramid: A History of Football Tactics, which won a National Sporting Club award and was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year.

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Steve Amoia is a freelance writer, book reviewer and translator from Washington, D.C. He is the publisher of World Football Commentaries and The Soccer Translator. You can follow Steve @worldfootballcm on Twitter.

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