Title: The Ghost of White Hart Lane
Authors: Rob White and Julie Welch
Publisher: Yellow Jersey
Published: 2011
One cannot conceive how difficult it would be to lose your father at a young age.. Yet that is what happened to Rob White, co-author of The Ghost of White Hart Lane, a book about his father, John White, the Scottish internationalist. White died after being struck by lightning on a golf course at the age of 27. The Ghost of White Hart is more than a biography of White’s life but also a personal tale of a child growing up without his father.
The Ghost of White Hart is a fantastically riveting book, the story of White’s life is brought together by Julie Welsh and Rob White - about a boy growing up in Musselburgh who was always told he was too slight to make it as a professional. Yet White defied the odds, first at Alloa Athletic and then Falkirk before being snapped up by Bill Nicholson, the final piece in a Tottenham Hotspur jigsaw that would see the club become the first English team to complete the double and also the first to win a piece of European silverware, the European Cup Winners Cup in 1963. It was during the time played for Spurs that White attracted the nickname The Ghost of White Hart Lane for his ability to be in places on the field that wasn’t expected, as if he almost glided through games. It was a nickname that would be prophetic too.
As a book, The Ghost of White Hart Lane is a wonderful piece of work - one that encapsulates the mood of the time and explaining the key personalities at play in John White’s life. The biography is also interspersed with reflections from Rob White. These chapters are powerful and illuminating without being mawkish or unsettling.
The ending of White’s life remains a tragedy and one that if this was a work of fiction would be deemed too far fetched. Welsh helps White pay a real tribute to his father in what is without doubt one of the finest football biographies I have read.
The Ghost of White Hart is a fantastically riveting book, the story of White’s life is brought together by Julie Welsh and Rob White - about a boy growing up in Musselburgh who was always told he was too slight to make it as a professional. Yet White defied the odds, first at Alloa Athletic and then Falkirk before being snapped up by Bill Nicholson, the final piece in a Tottenham Hotspur jigsaw that would see the club become the first English team to complete the double and also the first to win a piece of European silverware, the European Cup Winners Cup in 1963. It was during the time played for Spurs that White attracted the nickname The Ghost of White Hart Lane for his ability to be in places on the field that wasn’t expected, as if he almost glided through games. It was a nickname that would be prophetic too.
As a book, The Ghost of White Hart Lane is a wonderful piece of work - one that encapsulates the mood of the time and explaining the key personalities at play in John White’s life. The biography is also interspersed with reflections from Rob White. These chapters are powerful and illuminating without being mawkish or unsettling.
The ending of White’s life remains a tragedy and one that if this was a work of fiction would be deemed too far fetched. Welsh helps White pay a real tribute to his father in what is without doubt one of the finest football biographies I have read.
Buy The Ghost of White Hart Lane here.
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