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A Fan for All Seasons

A Journey Through Life and Sport

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A Fan for All Seasons

By: Jon Harvey
Narrated by: Jon Harvey
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Brought to you by Penguin.

A BBC Arts & The Reading Agency's Big Sporting Read selection

A hilarious, heartfelt, nostalgia-infused story of sport, loss and the journey of a lifetime.

After the sudden death of his older brother, Dan, Jon Harvey turned to the thing that had provided their strongest connection: sport, in all its myriad sublime and ridiculous forms. He made it his mission to visit as many events as he possibly could in a single year – to build the ultimate season ticket.

A kaleidoscopic twelve months took him from London Olympia to ancient Olympia, from rugby balls to Rubik's Cubes, Wimbledon tennis to Wimbledon greyhounds, from tennis legend Roger Federer to darts hero Martin 'Wolfie' Adams, and much, much more. It's a celebration, of sport, life, and an unbreakable bond between two brothers.

'Warm, sad and funny... There is something very eccentric and British about A Fan for All Seasons' - Sunday Times
©2023 Jon Harvey (P)2023 Penguin Audio

 Sociology of Sports Sports Funny Heartfelt
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Critic reviews

Warm, sad and funny... There is something very eccentric and British about A Fan for All Seasons
Vivid and funny... This is a wonderfully touching book about fandom and grief
Both funny and frivolous, sad and serious… an uplifting book that ultimately serves to help explain and excuse the time we all spend watching sport
The book…[has] honesty and passion at its heart. Jon Harvey is an excellent recreator of the atmosphere at a packed stadium or a hushed theatre… Most affectingly of all, he shows how sport can play its part in grieving
All stars
Most relevant
I was probably not the target market for this book. I assumed this book would be about his emotional journey with sport as a background but sport really comes to the foreground a lot. The author seems to be a fan of ALL sports from modern pentathlon to speed cubing with an emphasis on football. I'm not too fussed how Federer beat whoever in 2017 or who won the grand national so long descriptions of those sporting events didn't hit for me. That said when he mentions sports I have enjoyed or followed I found those sections engaging. Conversely when sports you are familiar with get a chapter then don't need the detailed background on the history/rules of the sport which you will get.

Some of this was quite funny though. I laughed out loud occasionally. The author has a voice a bit like the comedian Jon Richardson and that wasn't the easiest on audiobook but I got used to it. I think the book could have dealt more with the grief aspects as I have since listened to the author on Cariad Lloyd's Griefcast podcast and that was very interesting. I'll give it 4 stars as a sports book while acknowledging that sports books probably aren't for me.

Only read if you love sports

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I enjoyed every minute of this. Very witterly written.
And now I love sport.
I hope Jon wins the Clacton by-election as Count Binface.

A bit like Terry Pratchett

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