I really enjoyed this book. It tells the story of this great footballer in a very enjoyable way, and is clearly a labour of love. I particularly liked the way it made seventies London come to life, including the soul scene, a subculture that I hardly knew existed.

It's also an eyeopener to learn about the shocking levels of racism that existed in the UK at the time. We maybe take it for granted these days that people from all ethnic backgrounds take part in football at all levels, this book reminds it wasn't like this a few decades ago.

I must admit I didn't have that expectations for this book, as it was crowdfunded and self-published, I thought it might be a bit amateurish. I needn't have worried, everything here is top notch, from the introduction by Ian Wright to the editing, to the top quality printing.

The best part of the internet is that you can pretty much find footage of anything. So go to Youtube a type in Laurie Cunningham so that you can view his footwork and passing skills.

I'll wait.

Now that you have a bit of an idea of who Laurie Cunningham was on the pitch, it is a smart move to delve into Dermot Kavanagh's fast paced biography of Cunningham. The fact that he was the first footballer of color to play for England makes his story important, not just because of his skills but because of the barriers that he broke. This book focuses on the way he was received, the struggles he had to go through, and brings up the questions of if he had more injuries because he was black and was fouled harder and more frequently because the referees did not always catch the foul that was perpetrated. I was afraid that the story of Laurie Cunningham was going to be overshadowed by the story of him breaking color barriers, or vice versa, but Kavanagh does a very good job balancing the two aspects. His biography is tight paced, fast, and telling the story of Cunningham and of the racial climates of the places he played in a very good way.

As a sidenote, I watched England win the U17 World Cup this past week, and their striker and the winner of the Golden Boot of the tournament with eight goals was Rhian Brewster, a black kid playing for Liverpool. I had a feeling that somewhere Laurie Cunningham was watching as the team piled onto the pitch after they won, smiling with the knowledge that the hardships he had to carry were not carried in vain.

As a lover of football, fashion and music, this book should have been a good fit for me. Well guess what, it was. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the life of Laurie Cunningham. As well as being a great footballer what comes across in the book is what a great guy he was and how gifted he was in so many different ways. Top class read!

Well written and long-overdue biography of a wonderful winger whose career sadly petered out through injury and for all his brilliance never totally fulfilled his boundless potential.

Most importantly Cunningham's life outside football is fully explored as is his social milieu.

Highly recommended