The Golden Years

Title: The Golden Years - Hibernian in the Days of the Famous Five

Author: Tom Wright

Published: 2010

Publisher: DB Publishing

The Golden Years is the history of Hibernian’s success in the years following the Second World War. Led by a quintet of talented players - Gordon Smith, Lawrie Reilly, Bobby Johnstone, Eddie Turnbull and Willie Ormond. They were known as the Famous Five and for a decade wrestled for dominance as one of the top club sides in Britain, if not the world.

The book is told in standard linear fashion and begins before the outbreak of the Second World War. The style is informative and factual, almost textbook like, not necessarily aimed at entertaining the read. This is a piece of historic preservation rather than an examination of the personalities involved and whilst there is certainly not glaring faults with this style, it does treat the piece rather earnestly rather than celebrate the time with added colour. Another criticism would be the size of the print which is far too small and makes the task of reading the Golden Years far more daunting than it should be.

Wright is the Hibs club historian and it shows. He has access to reams of sources and it’s clear as all the detail is in the book very precisely. There are as well a good few anecdotes which are worth sharing, which certainly date the era: for example in 1949 the Hibs players gave the Board of Directors a Christmas gift. Not a move that I can imagine is replicated in the current era by players at Easter Road (or most clubs for that matter). Also, more tellingly, it emerges that Scotland took 41 people to the World Cup finals in 1954 in Switzerland. Only 13 of them were players. So it appears mismanagement and incompetence has been a fundamental part of the SFA for a prolonged period of time.

What is all the more remarkable about Hibs’ achievements on the pitch during the Famous Five era is that for a side that won the league three times between 1948 and 1952 is that the Famous Five only appeared together in 80 league matches. It is purely conjecture but one would have to wonder what could have been achieved by this Hibernian side if they had stayed injury free.

Buy The Golden Years here.

From the Bookshelf: When George Came to Edinburgh

Title: When George Came to Edinburgh
Author: John Neil Munro
Publisher: Birlinn
Year: 2010

At the beginning of the 1979/80, Hibernian got off to one of their worst starts for a number of seasons and were rooted to the bottom of the Premier Division. Extraordinarily, their chairman Tom Hart went out and bought his team the world’s most famous player. Cue Roy of the Rovers stuff where the team, buoyed by their new signing make a late surge for the title, right? Sadly that wasn’t the case. You’ll have noticed I said ‘world’s most famous’ not ‘world’s best’ player. Hibs had signed George Best, the one-time ‘fifth Beatle’ and now playing in fits and starts for Fulham between periods in the United States. This is the story of George Best’s spell in Edinburgh.

John Neil Munro paints a very clear of what sort of club Hibs were and what sort of shape George Best was in prior to his move to the capital. Well researched and speaking to a wide variety of sources, Munro paints a vivid portrait of Best’s stay in Edinburgh and how he impacted upon Scottish football. Munro has also taken the time to get behind the stories that appeared in the papers during the Ulsterman’s season – we find out that the infamous photograph that appeared nationwide indicating Best was worse for wear was in fact just catching Best at a bad angle (haven’t we all been there?).

When George Came to Edinburgh shines a light on an often neglected period of George’s life, but Munro highlights several of the issues that would afflict Best the rest of his life were becoming noticeable even by 79/80. My only quarrels with this finely written book is the inaccuracies stating Hibs had won the League Cup in 1993 (where they reached the final only to lose to Rangers) and the final chapter, reflections on George which instead of all being lumped together could have been lightly peppered throughout the book which would have added something more to the prose.

Buy When George Came to Edinburgh here.