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BookZone: The Ripple Effect
BookZone: The Ripple Effect
Thursday, 22nd Apr 2010 01:23

We continue our BookZone revisits with a review of Dominic Holland’s humourous novel about a fictional football club and its fans…

 

The Ripple Effect By Dominic Holland

Published by Flame (Hodder & Stoughton)
ISBN No. 0 340 82600 2

 

Put together a 3rd division football club in dire financial straits, a fanatical supporter or two, an absent millionaire owner and his unscrupulous lawyer, some property developers, a conniving football agent, a Tory MP, a corrupt local politician, a celebrity footballer with an uncontrollable temper and a kiss-and-tell ex girlfriend and you have all the ingredients for a hilarious story with a hidden message.

This is Dominic Holland’s second novel, Only In America being his first. He has had his own Radio 4 show ‘The Small World of Dominic Holland’, which won the Comic Heritage Award for best radio series and he has appeared several times on ‘Have I Got News For You’.

This paperback edition of The Ripple Effect was published in February 2004 - and with the upsurge of interest in supporters’ trusts and public awareness now heightened about the fate of smaller clubs - it deserved to be a blockbuster hit (See below for a very special RamsTrust offer!!).

The Ripple Effect itself refers to the fact that a fanatical supporter of Middleton Edwardians FC, Bill Baxter, fails to inject the requisite jam filling into a doughnut at the bakery where he works – and bizarrely this affects the lives of a lot of people in one way or another.

The ripple emanating from a jamless doughnut “sets in train a ripple of irrational anger which grows wave upon wave until finally it threatens to swamp the entire nation, leaving careers ruined, fortunes won and Parliament in turmoil”

The book itself is dedicated to ‘all the AFC Wimbledon’s out there’ and has praise from Danny Baker describing it as ‘a belter of a novel - this could be the book of the season’.

I agree - after all the depressing football books and egocentric ramblings of so-called ‘star players’ this book is a real refresher. The characters are well drawn - some might call them caricatures - and there is the requisite amount of coincidence and exaggeration which makes this book extremely witty and hard to put down.

The narrative moves at a rapid pace, as Middleton Edwardians FC face oblivion due to a Chairman who has no interest and his lawyer who sees the chance of a nice little earner by selling the land to property developers and encouraging the club to groundshare or vanish. Their plans are supported by a local politician who is promised a villa in Portugal for his pains.

Of course these ruthless non-football people hadn’t reckoned with the fans getting organised and doing their homework and uncovering all kinds of delaying tactics due to various clauses.

The side story is of a star Tottenham player whose temper tantrum makes national news and who shares a call girl with a Tory MP (a new variation on the Profumo theme) and who inevitably becomes entwined with the Middleton saga.

One of the funniest parts is the attempt of the supporters to raise funds by selling arguably their best player to a foreign club by tweaking with his name – Ronald O’Mara so that he is marketed as Ronaldo Mara and by careful editing of a video showing his ‘skills’. When representatives of Foggia arrive in Middleton they are less than impressed especially when ‘Ronaldo’ is substituted for missing a sitter!

Yes, it is a far fetched tale, but it is thoroughly enjoyable and some of the scenes are so reminiscent of one’s own experiences as a football fan that it’s hard not to laugh out loud.

The gulf between the Middletons of the world and the Manchester United’s couldn’t be wider, and this book exposes them all and shows supporters that they DO have what it takes between them to run a football club.

The end result and outcome are just a little too contrived to be believable, but that doesn’t diminish the book as an enjoyable read and a recommended title.

Supporters Direct must be delighted with this book as it epitomises most of what they stand for, and members of supporters’ trusts up and down the country will be delighted to shares the tribulations of Middleton Edwardians.

Special Note:

You can buy a *signed copy* of this novel direct from the Derby County supporters’ trust, RamsTrust at the special price of just £5.00 incl. p&p – it is £6.99 retail! (The book is not listed on the RamsTrust website shop but please click onto the ‘contact us’ and leave a request with your details).

 

 

Photo: Action Images



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