Howay the lads

A history of the best supported underachievers in world football

What is the real history of Newcastle United? Why has this gloriously exasperating football club inspired devotion bordering on religious fervour, despite a trophy cabinet that in recent years only bulged through malnutrition? And what, exactly, do its dizzying highs and operatic lows reveal about the corner of England it has so long represented in the national imagination?

In Howay the Lads!, Dan Jackson - bestselling author of The Northumbrians - dives headlong into the smoky backstreets of Victorian Tyneside, where football first took root among shipyards and coalmines with men who thought shin pads were for the faint-hearted. He traces how the North East fell hopelessly in love with the game, how Newcastle United rose to become the glittering aristocrats of Edwardian football, and how they then spent the next century pursuing Wembley glory with the stubborn optimism of someone who insists this year really is our year.

Along the way, we meet a cast worthy of a Netflix drama: the cerebral footballing polymath Colin Veitch; the goal-scoring folk heroes Jackie Milburn and Alan Shearer; and a procession of St James' Park boardroom characters whose exploits were often as dramatic as anything on the pitch.

Jackson explores the club's singular place in the social and cultural life of North East England - its fierce rivalries, its unbreakable bond with the city, and the fan culture that somehow made Newcastle United the best-supported underachievers in world football.

From coal dust to Champions League dreams, from heartbreak to hope, and from controversial Saudi takeover to a future shimmering with possibility, this is the story of what Newcastle United has been - and with 100 years since the club's last league title-winning season, what it still means to a city that sings, suffers and stubbornly believes. Howay the Lads!

Praise for Jackson's The Northumbrians:
'Superbly researched and written with immense affection' Sunday Times
'Both an education and an entertainment' The Telegraph
'The most enjoyable book on a region of Britain that I have ever read' New Statesman
'A celebration of his land and ancestors... I heartily recommend it' Mail on Sunday