Peter McParland. 1934-2025

[PeterWithe]

Another obituary on Peter McParland, this one in The Guardian by Brian Glanville, his last before he too died last week.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/may/05/peter-mcparland-obituary

[Exeter 77]

I didn’t know Peter was one the pallbearers at Duncan Edwards' funeral.

[cdbearsfan]

I wonder why that was. Maybe just because Edwards was local? Did they maybe have Villa, Blues, West Brom and Wolves pallbearers?

[dave shelley]

I didn’t know Peter was one the pallbearers at Duncan Edwards' funeral.

Neither did I until I read that piece the other day.

[eamonn]

Another obituary on Peter McParland, this one in The Guardian by Brian Glanville, his last before he too died last week.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/may/05/peter-mcparland-obituary

Jesus, that is a weird coincidence. I was sure Glanville had died years ago. I must have been mixing him up with some other esteemed, old football writer (did he used to write for "World Soccer" monthly magazine?).

Actually, for a second, when I clicked on Brian Glanville's name on your Guardian link, his most recent articles all seemed to be obituaries. It made me think - imagine a newspaper which had so many obits prepped (during slow news days) for the future, that the subject of the obituary outlived the person writing it. Sounds like the kernel of an idea for an episode of Inside Number Nine...

[Exeter 77]

Brian Glanville did write a column in World Soccer for many years.

[eamonn]

It must be someone else really respected too, then, that I'm thinking of who passed in recent years, which will annoy me now.

Edit - it was Hugh McIlvanney

[Crown Hill]

Glanville another who gets the charge totally wrong but I guess he rushed  this prepared obit and didn’t really care what he was writing.

[PeterWithe]

Another obituary on Peter McParland, this one in The Guardian by Brian Glanville, his last before he too died last week.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/may/05/peter-mcparland-obituary

Jesus, that is a weird coincidence. I was sure Glanville had died years ago. I must have been mixing him up with some other esteemed, old football writer (did he used to write for "World Soccer" monthly magazine?).

Actually, for a second, when I clicked on Brian Glanville's name on your Guardian link, his most recent articles all seemed to be obituaries. It made me think - imagine a newspaper which had so many obits prepped (during slow news days) for the future, that the subject of the obituary outlived the person writing it. Sounds like the kernel of an idea for an episode of Inside Number Nine...

As it happens, I was reading Glanvilles own obituary where it referred to his recent one of Peter McParland, so I read and linked it. It appears that Glanville only wrote obituaries for the Guardian, most of his career was at The Times and Sunday Times, although the obit hinted heavily that he was something of a money grabber and would write for anyone for a fee. Also a novelist.