Gordon Banks
A HERO WHO COULD FLY
- By Don Mullan - foreword by Gabriel Byrne
Gordon
Banks - A hero who could fly (Paperback)
ISBN: 0954704738
Price: €9.99
Gordon
Banks - A hero who could fly (Hardback)
ISBN: 0-9547047-9-7
Price: €19.99
Gordon Banks: A Hero Who Could Fly belongs
to that rare band of books which transcend categorisation.
It is partly an ode to one of the greatest English football
men of the twentieth century, partly the story of the politicization
of a Derry teenager as the Troubles began to flame across
Northern Ireland. Above all, it is a book about aspiring
to live one's life to certain principles. Besides goalkeeping,
that is what Gordon Banks and author Don Mullan have in
common.
Collaborations between sports stars,
from whatever era, and the fans who watched them from afar,
do not happen very often. Mullan's admiration for Gordon
Banks outlasted his adolescence and the worst moments of
violence in his home town of Derry. Long after the England
legend retired, he remained for Mullan the most vivid and
supreme representation of English football.That they would
meet decades later, as equals and eventually as friends,
is what makes this book ring so powerfully true and heartfelt.