Howay the lads!

'A brilliant history of the club I love. Passion, pride and pain - it's all here' ALAN SHEARER'No-one writes with as much flair, authority and sly wit about the North and Northerners as well as Dan Jackson... a loving, forensic, engaging history of his beloved Newcastle United' STUART MACONIE'An outstandingly rich, entertaining and thoughtful book' DOMINIC SANDBROOK'Not just an outstanding portrait of a club and its history, but also of a city, a region and even the people of the Geordie Nation' DUNCAN HAMILTONWhat is the real history of Newcastle United? Why has this gloriously exasperating football club inspired devotion bordering on religious fervour, despite a trophy cabinet that in recent years only bulged through malnutrition? And what, exactly, do its dizzying highs and operatic lows reveal about the corner of England it has so long represented in the national imagination?In Howay the Lads!, Dan Jackson - bestselling author of The Northumbrians - dives headlong into the smoky backstreets of Victorian Tyneside, where football first took root among shipyards and coalmines with men who thought shin pads were for the faint-hearted. He traces how the North East fell hopelessly in love with the game, how Newcastle United rose to become the glittering aristocrats of Edwardian football, and how they then spent the next century pursuing Wembley glory with the stubborn optimism of someone who insists this year really is our year.Along the way, we meet a cast worthy of a Netflix drama: the cerebral footballing polymath Colin Veitch; the goal-scoring folk heroes Jackie Milburn and Alan Shearer; and a procession of St James' Park boardroom characters whose exploits were often as dramatic as anything on the pitch.Jackson explores the club's singular place in the social and cultural life of North East England - its fierce rivalries, its unbreakable bond with the city, and the fan culture that somehow made Newcastle United the best-supported underachievers in world football.From coal dust to Champions League dreams, from heartbreak to hope, and from controversial Saudi takeover to a future shimmering with possibility, this is the story of what Newcastle United has been - and with 100 years since the club's last league title-winning season, what it still means to a city that sings, suffers and stubbornly believes. Howay the Lads!