Ultra
By Tobias Jones,
Head of Zeus, 288pp, £20/$25
Over the years English football hooligans have been the inspiration for a lot of shoddy books. Mainly badly written memoirs by former “top boys”, full of embellished tales of ultraviolence with titles such as Want Some Aggro? and Sex, Drugs and Football Thugs.
There are honourable exceptions. The one that springs to mind most readily is Bill Buford’s Among the Thugs, published in 1990. The American writer immersed himself in the grimy world of English hooliganism throughout the 1980s, attending National Front meetings, getting caught up in riots and receiving a hiding from police on two separate occasions. It remains an enthralling read.
