"Footeballe is nothinge but beastlie furie and extreme violence", wrote Thomas Elyot in 1531. Nearly five hundred years later, the game may still seem furious and violent, but it has also become the most popular sport on the planet.  This is the story of how the modern, professional, spectator sport of football was born in Britain in the second half of the nineteenth century. It's a tale of testosterone-filled public schoolboys, eccentric mill-owners and bolshy miners, and of why we play football the way we do. Who invented heading? Why do we have an offside law? And why are foreigners so much better than us at the game we invented?

Based on exhaustive research, Beastly Fury picks apart the complex processes which forged the modern game, turning accepted wisdom on its head. It's a story which is strangely familiar - of grasping players, corrupt clubs and autocratic officials. It's a tale of brutality, but at times too, of surprising artistry. Above all it's a story of how football, uniquely among the sports of that era, became what it is today - the people's game.

Charles William Alcock was one of the most influential figures in the early history of the game. After leaving Harrow School in 1859 he and his brother, John Forster Alcock, founded London's first football club Forest FC. Charles was the prime mover in the formation of Forest's famous successor, Wanderers FC. He captained the England team in all five matches against a Scotland XI between 1870 and 1872 although these are not recognised as full internationals. He also captained The Wanderers when they won the first ever FA Cup final in 1872. He served on the FA Committee 1866-1870 before being appointed as FA Secretary, a post he held until 1895. In April 1871 Alcock proposed to establish the FA Cup and he was instrumental in organising the first official international match against Scotland in 1872.  Ian Chester follows the early career of Charles and provides an overview of the development of the game including brief histories of the teams that entered the first FA Cup. The second half of the book is devoted to match-by-match reports from the competition itself.  The important thing to say about this book is that it is not a conventional history. As Chester writes in the Foreword, the book "is an attempt to use the historical information of the time to paint a picture of what it was like to play the game at its conception in Victorian society." The known facts form a structure around which the author weaves a more detailed narrative, complete with imagined dialogue.

Highly recommend this book is a must for every football fan who still remembers FA Cup Final day as the highlight of the football calendar. 

After years of crumbling decline, the British Empire seemed to be enjoying a resurgence with the coronation of the popular young Elizabeth II. As such, England played with the crushing weight of expectation upon their shoulders, defending their proud, unbeaten home record and protecting the reputation of the nation. Hungary, meanwhile, took on football’s most venerated team in the knowledge that they had the opportunity to make history by emerging victorious – anything less would not be tolerated.

The newspapers called it the Match of the Century before it had even begun. By the time it was over, writers, players and fans were wondering if such a lofty billing had in fact undersold the contest. Now, over sixty years later, the match is imbued with meaning and symbolism far beyond the football pitch. This is the story of a match that would change the course of football history forever.

Written by Matt Clough whose previous book Lofty: Nat Lofthouse was shortlisted for the Telegraph Sports Book Awards of the Year.

Four years after the crowning glory of 1966 and a decade after the abolition of the maximum wage, a brash new era dawned in English football. As the 1970s took hold, a new generation of larger-than-life footballers and managers came to dominate the sport, appearing on television sets in vivid technicolour for the first time.  Set against a backdrop of three-day weeks, strikes, political unrest, freezing winters and glam rock, Get It On tells the intriguing inside story of how commercialism, innovation, racism and hooliganism rocked the national game in the 1970s. Charting the emergence of Brian Clough, Bob Paisley and Kevin Keegan, and the fall of George Best, Alf Ramsey and Don Revie, this fascinating footballing fiesta traces the highs and lows of an evolutionary and revolutionary era for the beautiful game.

Jon Spurling has been interviewing footballers for twenty-five years, including legends George Best and Jack Charlton, European Cup-winning captains Emlyn Hughes and John McGovern and pioneering black footballers Cyrille Regis and Brendon Batson. Get It On presents these heroes of the era in their unvarnished and uncompromising glory and explores how the 1970s was the most groundbreaking decade in English football history.

This book is a must read for those who fell in love with football during the 1970s, brimming with nostalgia for those who like their football players tough. 

Is Victorian sexual anxiety the root cause of England's many World Cup failures? What links Roy Keane to a soldier who never lived but died in the Charge of the Light Brigade? And how did thick mud and wet leather shape the contours of the English soul? In this playful and highly original look at English football, David Winner, author of the acclaimed Brilliant Orange, journeys to the heart of Englishness itself, and shines a peculiar light on the true nature of a rapidly-changing game which was never really meant to be beautiful.

This book is not a convential history of English football,  but brilliantly captures what made English football what it is, and what has been lost in the Premier League era.