Watford Forever: How Graham Taylor and Elton John Saved a Football Club, a Town and Each Other

by John Preston, Elton John Narrated by Alex Jennings

Overview

The unforgettable story of Watford Football Club's seemingly impossible rise from the Fourth to the First Division, led by the unlikely duo of Hornet's manager Graham Taylor and rock star-turned-owner, Elton John.

Long before English soccer became an American passion, Watford Football Club-a team located in a working-class industrial town that time and prosperity had passed by-languished at the bottom of the English Football League. Despite their pitiful record, the club enthralled a local boy by the name of Reginald Dwight, who began attending games with his father, an avid fan, in 1953.

More than twenty years later, having shed his given name, Elton John had become the most successful rock star in the world. With his six-inch platforms, spangled jumpsuits, and peroxide-colored hair, Elton was glamorous, gay, and seemingly a universe away from the village where he had supported Watford FC, yet his boyhood love of Watford and its dogged players remained. When tempted to buy the sputtering team in 1976, everyone begged Elton not to invest, but they were his team, as they were his father's, and he refused to believe that Watford was beyond redemption.

Watford Forever, then, is the remarkable account of Elton John's ownership of Watford FC, and its transformational journey to the top of the First Division under iconic manager Graham Taylor, who was, in the words of award-winning journalist John Preston, “as traditional as Elton was unconventional.” Inspiring, funny, and ultimately heartrending, this is a tribute to soccer's unlikeliest duo as Elton and Taylor-a straight-talking former fullback with literally no interest in rock music-both beat the odds and their personal demons to save a club and a community.

Immersed in the grit of Seventies Britain, Watford Forever tells the story of this “indissoluble bond,” revealing how the power of sports and respect for the “other” brought about a reclamation whose reverberations can be felt to this day.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"John bought his beloved Watford FC when it was near the bottom of English football, then carried it to glory in alliance with manager Graham Taylor — his polar opposite. The rock star collaborated with Preston, a skilled and versatile writer, for this English-odd-couple feelgood story."— Financial Times

"A warm and redemptive tale...packed with anecdotes, moments that skewer the times with economy and prevision. Plus endless laugh-out-loud yarns…as Preston tells [Elton John and Graham Taylor’s] story, it rattles along at page-turning pace...it reads, indeed, like the script of a movie."— Jim White Independent

"You don't have to be a Watford fan to enjoy this terrific book. It is about much more than the unlikely friendship between one of the most famous stars on the planet, who as a boy had loved being taken to Watford matches by his distant father, and the fiercely ambitious son of a sports editor who wanted, in his managerial achievements, to make up for an undistinguished playing career."— Daily Mail

"The original football fairytale of a small club rising from the bottom to the top."— Watford Observer

"It is hard to read Watford Forever without becoming overwhelmingly nostalgic... Preston burrows to the heart of what for a while Watford got so right."— Simon Burnton Observer

"Entwining sport, music and social history, the absorbing Watford Forever is masterfully judged, saccharine-free, true-life fairy tale, which showcases another side of Elton John."— John Aizlewood iNews

"A rollicking period tale of footballing success... Watford Forever teems with unforgettable images...from first to last, this is an ever-entertaining telling of a remarkable sporting fairy-tale."— Declan Ryan Daily Telegraph

"A wonderful, feel-good account of an ultimately English provincial story,"— Simon Kuper The Spectator

"If John Preston hasn’t already sold the film rights to this book, he surely will soon. Watford Forever is the heartwarming story of the collaboration and friendship between English football’s oddest couple, Elton John and Graham Taylor"— Robert Crampton The Times

"Affectionately rough-and-tumble portrait of a small-town British soccer team. A real-life Ted Lasso tale of a perennial underdog sparked to life—and fans of Sir Elton will enjoy it, too."— Kirkus Reviews

"Preston skillfully spins Watford’s ascent into a rousing underdog story, and his access to John reveals a more intimate side of the pop star... This will have readers cheering."— Publishers Weekly

Kirkus Reviews

2024-05-25
Affectionately rough-and-tumble portrait of a small-town British soccer team.

Like much of England in the mid-1970s, Watford, a nondescript suburb, was in terrible shape. “Its workforce had been decimated by factory closures, its heart torn out by idiotic town-planning and its identity subsumed in London’s never-ending sprawl,” writes formerSunday Telegraph journalist Preston. Its soccer team, Watford FC, was just as hangdog, “a bunch of complete no-hopers.” Enter Elton John, who, climbing to the height of his fame, bought the club in 1976, despite warnings that it would all end in tears. The team had a few good players but none of the vision that can guide a squad to victory, and there John’s mounds of pounds came in handy. The following year, he brought a winning manager into the picture in the person of the steady, evenhanded Graham Taylor, who once told the struggling lads that in the second half they “should just give it everything they had, playing without fear and always looking to attack,” adding, “You never know where it might take you.” Taylor’s understated faith in his players took them to unexpected heights, the stuff of which inspirational sports films are made. There’s a pointed morality tale running through the narrative, for, as Preston notes, the U.S. has no shortage of little towns that “seem somehow to have fallen off the map” and just need a shot in the arm to come around. Alas, all it takes is a sufficient number of civic-minded millionaires. As for Elton John, Preston does a skillfully understated job himself of bringing psychobiography into play in his exploration of what prompted the tormented star to buy the club in the first place.

A real-lifeTed Lasso tale of a perennial underdog sparked to life—and fans of Sir Elton will enjoy it, too.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940192441619
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	08/27/2024
Edition description:	Unabridged

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