'Making the Arsenal' is what's know as a rattling good yarn or page-turner but also a work of faction, namely part fact, part fiction. That's to say it comprises many real facts, actual events and a multitude of real people who existed at the time, but also contains a number of fictional individuals who via the plotline pull the work together towards its rather eccentric climax.

Set in 1910 with an authentic period background it centres, to some large degree, around Woolwich Arsenal Football Club which at the time was in serious financial difficulties. Thus making this book, according to the publisher’s notes, one of the very few novels about football clubs. Certainly only the 'Arsenal Stadium Mystery' springs to mind in relation to our club. The events pertaining to Arsenal and characters relating to the club are all factual. The most notorious being Henry Norris who at the time of Woolwich Arsenal FC's liquidation was attempting to become the new owner and merge Woolwich Arsenal with Fulham, another club that he owned. Norris plays the heavy in this tale and is seen pretty much in character.

Quite why Norris wishes to purchase Arsenal is the very essence of the plot, which manages to include a blistering variety of both real life characters and actual events from 1910. To name but a few these include: Winston Churchill the then Home Secretary, Norris himself, the miners’ strikes, Dr. Crippen, the anarchist threat, pre-war paranoia regarding spies for the Kaiser and the Suffragette movement. Even Arsenal's future manager George Allison enjoys a cameo role.

Central to the novel is an ex-sergeant of the Boer War and journalist for the Daily Chronicle named Jacko Jones. Jacko is a Fleet Street football match reporter, amongst other things, and through him, his colleagues and his close friends the pursuit of Norris creates an adventurous storyline set in and around the true events of the year. These almost inevitably include the odd escapade at Woolwich Arsenal.

Jacko spends a lot of his time either playing in a band, in love, avoiding his sarcastic boss or seeing just how far he can push things in his writing for the Chronicle. Part history lesson, part thriller, part detective novel almost, the plot winds in a variety of directions and manages to pull in a whole load of historical snippets relating to the period. There's plenty of banter, some great throwaway lines in the newspaper office, and enough storylines going on to keep you on your toes. All in all Jacko, Norris, Woolwich Arsenal Football Club, Churchill and the period itself are put into context in a manner that only a very well researched period piece could achieve.

Making the Arsenal
Tony Attwood
Hamilton House
£12.99
ISBN number: 978 1 86083 759 3

Available from most good bookstores and certain major online booksellers, including the obvious one which you may still be boycotting. An alternative option is this one.

More details of the book can be found here. Tony also writes a regular blog on Arsenal by the name of Arsenal News.