Blueseason’s New Beginning
The fifth ‘Blueseason’ book, chronicling one complete campaign in the life of Carlisle United has just been published and the new title marks two changes from previous editions. Carlisle United: Blueseason 2010-2011 is the first such book to have an Amazon Kindle edition alongside the paper copies. Most significantly, the book also marks a new collaboration between author, the club, and I.
It uses official club match reports and it is credited to co-authors; Andy Hall (CUFC Media Officer) and me. Other than that it’s the same book we’ve produced since 2007, all the games, all the goals and all the gossip. But the new collaboration means some of the inside knowledge that makes the official game reports so important is now added, whilst the unofficial views involving me keeping an eye on message board posts and an ear open for gossip over pre-match pints is in there too. It strikes me as the best of both worlds, and hopefully this arrangement should continue into the future.
The involvement of the club means half the proceeds of the book will go to Carlisle United’s Football in the Community work and that has to be a good thing. I’ve just interviewed John Halpin, who started with Carlisle’s Football in the Community programme 20 years ago. If you’re reading this online, then that interview will replace this piece soon. If you’re reading Hit the Bar it’s somewhere in this edition. Either way, it’s worth reading, just to see how many different things now make up Football in the Community.
Blueseason Kindle edition:
Blueseason printed edition:
Front cover photo - copyright Mark Fuller.