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Author Topic: Ticket to the Moon book  (Read 5668 times)

Offline jackgbrown

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Ticket to the Moon book
« on: October 10, 2018, 05:13:28 PM »
Hello all,

Thought I'd just make you aware of a new Aston Villa book out at the start of November: Ticket to the Moon, by Richard Sydenham.

The book takes a look at Villa's sharp rise and fall: from the title win in 1981 after promotion seven years earlier, the improbable European Cup triumph, to life back in the Second Division amid a lack of investment. Many of the key figures at the club are interviewed, including Sir Doug Ellis, Ron Saunders, Gordon Cowans, John Deehan, Andy Gray, John Gidman, Tony Morley and Dennis Mortimer (plus many others).

Richard also had access to the minutes from the boardroom meetings at the time, revealing who said what to who at key intervals during this period.

 

Thanks

« Last Edit: October 10, 2018, 07:12:28 PM by martin@ardenley »

Offline The Edge

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Re: Ticket to the Moon book
« Reply #1 on: October 10, 2018, 06:12:44 PM »
Hello all,
Nice one. Just in time for Christmas ✌

Thought I'd just make you aware of a new Aston Villa book out at the start of November: Ticket to the Moon, by Richard Sydenham.

The book takes a look at Villa's sharp rise and fall: from the title win in 1981 after promotion seven years earlier, the improbable European Cup triumph, to life back in the Second Division amid a lack of investment. Many of the key figures at the club are interviewed, including Sir Doug Ellis, Ron Saunders, Gordon Cowans, John Deehan, Andy Gray, John Gidman, Tony Morley and Dennis Mortimer (plus many others).

Richard also had access to the minutes from the boardroom meetings at the time, revealing who said what to who at key intervals during this period.


Thanks
Cocked that up. Sorry.
« Last Edit: October 10, 2018, 08:48:48 PM by Legion »

Online dave.woodhall

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Re: Ticket to the Moon book
« Reply #2 on: October 10, 2018, 06:20:14 PM »
Hello Jack,

If you're plugging something your company is producing it's only polite to ask first.

Offline eamonn

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Re: Ticket to the Moon book
« Reply #3 on: October 10, 2018, 06:28:26 PM »
I did think Dave would have done a book on the whole decade, from the stars to the gutter and top of the table again at the end of the 80's.

Online dave.woodhall

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Re: Ticket to the Moon book
« Reply #4 on: October 10, 2018, 07:51:53 PM »
I did think Dave would have done a book on the whole decade, from the stars to the gutter and top of the table again at the end of the 80's.

I did think about it, but there's nothing more that can be said about the 1980-82 period, the Taylor years have been covered in reasonable detail and the bit in the middle was just depressing. And to be honest I've written so much about 1990 onwards that I'd bore myself.

Offline PeterWithe

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Re: Ticket to the Moon book
« Reply #5 on: October 10, 2018, 08:09:50 PM »
Do you have any more books planned on any subject? 

Online dave.woodhall

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Re: Ticket to the Moon book
« Reply #6 on: October 10, 2018, 08:29:45 PM »
Do you have any more books planned on any subject? 

I wish.

Online dave.woodhall

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Re: Ticket to the Moon book
« Reply #7 on: November 09, 2018, 02:48:43 PM »
Has anyone read this yet?

Online curiousorange

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Re: Ticket to the Moon book
« Reply #8 on: November 10, 2018, 11:45:20 AM »
Personally, don't know if I'd have used an ELO song title for a Villa book, but that's just me.

Offline manic-road

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Re: Ticket to the Moon book
« Reply #9 on: December 11, 2019, 06:33:13 PM »
The author and Sid Cowans were on Talkshite radio this afternoon talking about this book and went into detail about those players that were close to Doug Ellis (A Gray, J Gidman B Little)  rather than Ron Saunders so Ron sold them on as he wanted players loyal to him.

Sid then went onto say what the majority of us know that Doug wouldn't pay out to strengthen to keep us up and around the top of the league which was a major missed opportunity and that the team were broken up way to quickly whereas we had a good chance of competing at or around the top for around four years.

Sid also went onto say that it was him who rang up the president at Bari to get Platt the move he wanted and then negotiated a higher wage for Platt before he would sign. An interesting listen on the H&J show.

Offline MplsVilla

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Re: Ticket to the Moon book
« Reply #10 on: December 12, 2019, 01:20:21 PM »
I got this in Hardback as a birthday present in March. I think it's an interesting take on the ups and downs of Villa in the 70s and 80s. I recall it was well written and he had spoken to a lot of players and staff who were involved at various points, so it wasn't just from a distance.

Offline darren woolley

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Re: Ticket to the Moon book
« Reply #11 on: December 12, 2019, 01:39:01 PM »
I love reading Dave's books I hope in the future he does another one fingers crossed.

Offline hipkiss92

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Re: Ticket to the Moon book
« Reply #12 on: December 12, 2019, 01:58:23 PM »
I read this last Christmas. So much intrigue and suspicion behind closed-doors, would make for a great Netflix series.

Offline Damo70

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Re: Ticket to the Moon book
« Reply #13 on: December 12, 2019, 02:42:33 PM »
I bought and read it a while back. Reading about the good times that we all lived through was a great nostalgic read. 1984 onwards brought back bad memories.

Offline Luffbralion

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Re: Ticket to the Moon book
« Reply #14 on: March 19, 2020, 09:51:33 PM »
Now that we're all social distancing I read this at one go, having received it at Christmas. Brought back some great memories and gave a lot of insight into Ron and the team he created. By using interviews with players and former staff, Sydenham tries to give a broad view of what went wrong and to balance arguments, especially with regard to our sorry decline once Doug Ellis had returned. His parsimony played a part but so did very poor managerial appointments. Sir Graham rescued us because he knew exactly what was needed, took control and still kept Doug Ellis sweet.

I thought it was well researched and well-written.  Recommended for anyone feeling stuck indoors or feeling lost without football.

 


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