EDIT: My article on the birth of Manchester football (groundbreaking research that has never been published before and of interest to anyone who wants to know why football took hold) is available free to download for the next 48 hours (6th & 7th March) here:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10. ... 013.873075 It's important everyone respects copyright but please take this opportunity to download your own copy now. The offer won't last and I'm sure you'll be interested in the content.
This includes information about football before 1884 in Manchester that has never been revealed before and provides evidence of a Hulme based football club existing in November 1863 making it the earliest known constituted football club in Lancashire (my research continues of course!).
I'll also be giving a free talk on this at the National Football Museum on 28th March at 1pm. Tickets must be booked in advance from here:
http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/mmu-sport ... s=22007271 Thanks as always,
Gary
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I know quite a few on Mancityfans.net have always been interested and supportive of my research & writing and, although this is not specifically about City, I'm sure one or two of you may be interested. I've written a paper on the birth of Manchester's football culture between 1840 and 1884 for an academic journal. At 7pm today I'll be posting a link to my paper which will give free access to the first 50 who download it. The link will be posted on my facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/GaryJames4 and twitter accounts: @garyjameswriter
The first 50 people to use the link at 7pm UK time will be able to read the paper for free, after that unfortunately it's back to the journal's usual charges. This paper has been written in an academic format rather than the style of my usual works, but I'm sure quite a few of you will be interested in its contents. It's not a piece on MCFC (or mufc for that matter), but it does talk of the birth of Manchester football and provides for the first time evidence of what took place in the city before 1884.
If you are more interested in reading about the birth of MCFC (or want to read about the Blues as the follow on) then this covers the period up to 1892 and has been researched to the same level of detail (it's actually the opening 30,000 words from the hardback Manchester The City Years):
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Manchester-The- ... V7E2KKTV04Supporting the paper (which can be accessed here if you can't wait for the free copies:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10. ... 013.873075 ) I will be talking at the National Football Museum specifically on the formative clubs, such as Hulme, and the story leading up to 1884. Details of this free talk here:
http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/mmu-sport ... s=22007271There have been a few mentions about my academic paper in the Sunday Mirror and elsewhere, but the talk will be the first time the story has been told properly and in more detail. A few of you have heard me go on (quite a bit) about how I care passionately about researching this period and getting it right, sorry! The key thing for me is to get this info out there (properly acknowledged of course). This is part of ongoing research I am doing on Manchester football which will be published in various forms over the coming years.
There is so much more to explain about Manchester's footballing birth that, to date, has not found its way into any publication. Watch this space, but first if you're interested look out for the link at 7pm for the free download.