Duncan Hamilton’s account of England’s World Cup victory of 1966 is written in sorrow, and in anger, and in a melancholy acceptance of what befell the sporting heroes of yesteryear. It is sometimes agonising to read, because we are made aware of how the bright star of a single summer’s day is set against the long haul of lives drifting into eclipse. Agonising, but also absorbing. Like all the best football books, Answered Prayers is not just about football; it’s about hope and despair, friendship and enmity, and the character it takes to handle them.
The particular character it concerns is Alf Ramsey, the man who masterminded the England team’s finest hour. Hamilton begins by visiting his statue, obscurely situated in Portman Road, Ipswich, ignored by all but the pigeons. Yet in life it would be Ramsey’s fate to endure much worse than bird shit. Born poor in Dagenham in 1920 – his father was described in the census as a “hay & straw dealer”, like an indigent from Henry Mayhew – he was driven by football and self-improvement, carefully planing down the edges of his cockney accent. After a distinguished playing career (Southampton, Spurs, 32 caps for England), he joined unfancied Ipswich Town as manager in the mid-1950s and within six years had engineered a remarkable ascent from the old Third Division to First Division champions in their debut season.
