A raw, powerful first novel, The Football Factory centres on Tom Johnson, a seasoned 'Chelsea hooligan' who represents a disaffected society operating by brutal rules. We are shown the realities of life — social degradation, unemployment, racism, casual violence, excessive drink and bad sex — and, perhaps more importantly, how they fall into a political context of surveillance, media manipulation and division. Graphic and disturbing, occasionally very funny, and deeply affecting throughout, The Football Factory is a vertiginous rush of adrenaline — the most authentic book yet on the so-called English Disease.
