'Eric Judd is 39 and his girlfriend wants him to give up playing football. Eric (aka Mr Cleansheets) is a goalkeeping legend at his amateur Sydney club because in his youth he received a letter inviting him to trial with Manchester United. The letter said to "come when you're ready" - and six days before his 40th birthday, Eric is finally ready.
Inspired by the dying wish of his Uncle Jimmy, Eric travels to England, but does not quite receive the welcome he had hoped for. Instead, he encounters all manner of villains: murderous football hooligans, Irish mafia, dodgy football agents, beautiful pop stars, international terrorists and a range of supporting players with any number of overt and hidden agendas.
He also plays football.' (From the publisher's website.)
'The creative writing thematising soccer in Australia, Australian soccer literature, is a marginal literary genre, though it is not as marginal as many critics and discussions would have it. Drawing on materials spanning from the late nineteenth century until the present, this paper examines the diversity of themes and sources found in Australian soccer literature. It attempts to establish a historical narrative based upon the extant texts, and in this context the paper unearths long-forgotten passages, often hidden within larger texts dealing with other issues. In short, this paper adds to the threadbare coverage of Australian soccer literature in the fields of Australian literature dealing with sport, as well to bibliographical listings found in critical works dealing with Australian soccer. While noting the apparent isolation between the various works of Australian soccer literature, this paper also notes the broader trends that the majority of the works contribute to.'
Source: Article abstract.
'The creative writing thematising soccer in Australia, Australian soccer literature, is a marginal literary genre, though it is not as marginal as many critics and discussions would have it. Drawing on materials spanning from the late nineteenth century until the present, this paper examines the diversity of themes and sources found in Australian soccer literature. It attempts to establish a historical narrative based upon the extant texts, and in this context the paper unearths long-forgotten passages, often hidden within larger texts dealing with other issues. In short, this paper adds to the threadbare coverage of Australian soccer literature in the fields of Australian literature dealing with sport, as well to bibliographical listings found in critical works dealing with Australian soccer. While noting the apparent isolation between the various works of Australian soccer literature, this paper also notes the broader trends that the majority of the works contribute to.'
Source: Article abstract.
