Living on the Volcano: The Secrets of Surviving as a Football Manager Hardcover – 13 Aug 2015

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Review ------ "The honesty in Living on the Volcano suggests that in an era of anodyne press conferences where so many managers speak a lot while saying little, giving fans an occasional glimpse of these feelings might be no bad thing" (The Guardian) "an illuminating new book...vivid journey on what it is really is to be a football manager" (Independent) "Arguably the greatest asset of Michael Calvin’s previous, award-winning book The Nowhere Men was its human in into a shadowy, under-appreciated world. The trials and tribulations of scouting were vividly portrayed through interviews with figures unaccustomed to the limelight... What Living on the Volcano does so brilliantly, is pick up the recurring threads. The ‘band of brothers’ mentality that emerges is built on a mutual world of uncertainty, frustration, and ‘recurrent rejection and renewal’. Each chapter is cleverly connected to the next to reflect the fluid nature of the managerial merry-go-round… As a series of individual portraits, Living on the Volcano may seem like a book to dip in and out of. However, in doing so, there’s a danger of missing the power of the overall narrative. Bookended by former Torquay manager Martin Ling’s emotional story, this is a book about people and what it takes to do their intoxicating and exhausting job. Just as with The Nowhere Men, Calvin gets to the personal core of an impersonal industry" (Of Pitch and Page) "Brilliant stuff" (FourFourTwo Magazine) "an eye-raising in into the realities of life in the dugout" (The Times) "Calvin’s book takes us into many enthralling areas. It is especially strong on the nuts and bolts of ambition. And how ambition often sits uneasily alongside dreams… superb" (Irish Examiner) "a remarkable in into the often hopelessly neurotic world of those in charge of a professional football dressing-room… The book conveys a fragile side of management most often kept obscured. Its real beauty is that it deals with people, not caricatures" (Irish Independent) "the narrative of Ling’s decline forms a vivid part of the superb new book which seeks to understand, like never before, the interior mind and challenges of a football manager. Mike Calvin’s Living on the Volcano reaches way beyond the standard press conference propaganda" (Independent) " a remarkable in into what makes these men [football managers] tick, or in some cases, tic. Stress, insomnia, paranoia, depression with a dash of ego, a dollop of insecurity and there you have it … one volatile cocktail. Calvin is an exquisite writer but he is also a “proper” journalist. If a manager wants to keep talking, thus revealing far more than he perhaps intended, Calvin sits back and allow the dictaphone to take the strain then lets the quotes run." (Sports Journalist Association) "I am quite sure that football fans would be more patient and have a better understanding of the problems and pressures that managers face every day if they took the time to read Mike Calvin’s fascinating and illuminating new book" (BFC Talk) Book Description ---------------- A close look at the life of football managers. From the Inside Flap -------------------- Award winning author Mike Calvin is back with his new book exposing the lives of football managers. He goes into lower league pressing rooms and the inner sanctums of the Premier League. He coaxes the humanity out of household names like Brendan Rodgers, Roberto Martinez, Alan Pardew and Mark Hughes. He looks beyond the brand names, and identifies rising stars, like Sean Dyche, Garry Monk, Shaun Derry, Gareth Ainsworth, Karl Robinson and Eddie Howe. This is a unique in into a trade where managers require ruthlessness and empathy, idealism and cunning. Never before have the secrets and myths of football management been so laid bare. From the Back Cover ------------------- This is a book about football managers, live and uncut. The average lifespan of a manager in the Championship is eight months. New records for volatility are set every season. What makes these men tick? They are familiar figures, who rarely offer anything more than a glimpse into their personal and professional lives. Who are they? What shapes them? How and why do they do their job? Award-winning writer Michael Calvin provides the answers. About the Author ---------------- Michael Calvin, one of the UK’s most accomplished sportswriters, has worked in more than eighty countries, covering every major sporting event, including seven summer Olympic Games and six World Cup finals. He was named Sports Writer of the Year for his despatches as a crew member in a round-the-world yacht race and has twice been named Sports Reporter of the Year. He is a bestselling author, whose book The Nowhere Men won the Times Sports Book of the Year prize in 2014. He became the first author to receive the award in successive years, when Proud, his collaboration with former Wales and British Lions rugby captain Gareth Thomas, was named Sports Book of the Year in 2015. In the same year the second book of his football trilogy, Living On The Volcano, was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year prize. No Nonsense, his collaboration with Joey Barton, was nominated for the award in 2016.