The Anatomy of England

Having invented the game, everything that has followed for England has been something of an anti-climax. There was, of course, the golden summer of 1966, when Alf Ramsey's radicalism in unveiling his wingless wonders in a World Cup quarter-final paid dividends. And there was the great period of English dominance on the world stage, which fell roughly between 1886 and 1900, when England won 35 of their 40 internationals...

But before long foreign teams, with their insistence on progressive 'tactics', began to pose a few questions. And much of what followed for England constituted a series of false dawns (a thrashing of Italy in 1948; one World Cup triumph; the demolition of Holland in Euro '96), muddling through and by and large panicking under pressure. In THE ANATOMY OF ENGLAND award-winning journalist Jonathan Wilson seeks to place the bright spots in the context of the twentieth-century.

“Bursting with insight and critical detail, yet imbued with a wry affection, this is a history of England like none before.”

A masterful work...it could be the best thing to have happened to English football in years TIME OUT
[A] thought-provoking reappraisal of ten key games in England's football history ... this book should be required reading for all future England squads INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
Wilson belongs alongside David Goldblatt and the daddy of them all, Brian Glanville, in the triumvirate of great British football historians FINANCIAL TIMES
Absorbing in detail...By analysing 10 England matches which sum up the prevailing ethos in the English game, Wilson's forensic examination of events on the bench are lent a broader context and perspective FOURFOURTWO
LIVING NORTH

Jonathan Wilson writes on football for the Financial Times, Guardian online and the Telegraph. A critically acclaimed author, he has been shortlisted for the William Hill and won a National Sporting Club Award.

Having invented the game, everything that has followed for England has been something of an anti-climax. There was, of course, the golden summer of 1966, when Alf Ramsey's radicalism in unveiling his wingless wonders in a World Cup quarter-final paid dividends. And there was the great period of English dominance on the world stage, which fell roughly between 1886 and 1900, when England won 35 of their 40 internationals...But before long foreign teams, with their insistence on progressive 'tactics', began to pose a few questions. And much of what followed for England constituted a series of false dawns (a thrashing of Italy in 1948; one World Cup triumph; the demolition of Holland in Euro '96), muddling through and by and large panicking under pressure. In THE ANATOMY OF ENGLAND award-winning journalist Jonathan Wilson seeks to place the bright spots in the context of the twentieth-century.

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