red letters
Two Fervent Liverpool FC Supporters Correspond through the Epic Season That Wouldn't End
michael maccambridge & neil atkinson Foreword by Grant Wahl “Passionate and percep�ve, contempla�ve and comprehensive, MacCambridge and Atkinson take you on a journey like no other through a season like no other, as hope and excitement give way to frustra�on and fear. What stands out, though, is not the agony and ecstasy of Liverpool’s �tle win, but the warmth and the wit of the authors as the world changes around them and their team.” —Rory Smith, chief soccer correspondent for the New York Times For those obsessed with Premier League football, following your favorite team is a true collective experience, where it is easy to feel as one with thousands of others. It is also an individual one, in which the emotions you feel are your emotions, the experiences you feel are your experiences, and nobody else can perfectly understand. Over the course of the 2019–20 season, two longtime Liverpool FC followers wrote to each other about those emotions and experiences. American writer Michael MacCambridge, living in Austin, Texas, is a devoted Liverpool follower. Five thousand miles away, his friend Neil Atkinson, Liverpool resident and a longtime season ticket holder, is the host of the popular podcast the Anfield Wrap. Each week throughout the historic season, Atkinson and MacCambridge exchanged letters, contemplating Liverpool’s progress, comparing and contrasting their different perspectives on the club and the sport, meditating on the manner in which their shared obsession for Liverpool works its way into nearly every corner of their personal lives, and discussing the differences between how the game is consumed in the United States and the United Kingdom and the role modern media plays in shaping our views of sport. Their collaboration was both timely and serendipitous, as Liverpool marched toward its first ever Premier League title and its first league title in thirty years, with a charismatic manager and the most entertaining team in the sport. In March, of course, the football story was overtaken by the larger story of the COVID-19 pandemic wreaking havoc throughout the world, including sports events. In the course of their correspondence, Red Letters provides a real-time account of the pandemic that threatened the very existence of the season that Liverpool followers had been waiting more than a generation to experience. university of nebraska press | november 2021 | 9781496229762 | 472pp | £20.00* | HB *price subject to change
Neil Atkinson is a Liverpool-based writer, broadcaster, and film producer. He is the host of and one of the main writers behind the website and podcast the Anfield Wrap. Michael MacCambridge is one of the foremost authorities on pro and college football in the US. He is the author of several books, including ’69 Chiefs: A Team, a Season, and the Birth of Modern Kansas City and America’s Game: The Epic Story of How Pro Football Captured a Nation. Grant Wahl is a leading football journalist and best-selling author of Masters of Modern Soccer: How the World’s Best Play the Twenty-First-Century Game.
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