Never Never Land: A Lifetime Love Affair with Southend United

by David Williams

Overview

Supporting a lower-division club may not always be rewarding, but it's rarely dull. Welcome to Never Never Land, an intimate and personal story of Southend United and English football over the past 60 years.

The book chronicles memorable matches as United challenge for promotion and battle against relegation. With action, sights and sounds from the terraces, stands and TV screens, it offers a front-row seat to the club’s most triumphant highs and devastating lows.

Inside you will discover:

• Unique personal experiences of memorable Southend United matches over 60 years, interwoven with the author’s own story
• How NOT to end up supporting Liverpool: despite this being the city of his birth and hailing from a Liverpool-supporting family, Williams chose an uncelebrated lower-division Essex team
• What it takes to support Southend United: battling the axis of commiseration, ridicule and misunderstanding afflicting supporters of lower-division clubs
• An exploration of the key characters, on and off the pitch, who have helped to build United’s history
• Insights into the challenges of supporting Southend United in Australia and the author’s endeavors to spread the word 12,000 miles away

 

Never Never Land is a must-read not only for Southend United supporters, but fans of lower-division Football League clubs everywhere.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781836802099
Publisher:	Pitch Publishing Ltd
Publication date:	10/14/2025
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.67(w) x 8.74(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

David R. Williams has been a passionate supporter of Southend United for 60 years. An economics graduate from London University, his working career spanned logistics and project management in England and Australia. But it was his love for United that inspired him to write Never Never Land. A native of Liverpool, but resident in Essex for 40 years, David now flies the United flag with wife Kim in the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia.

Editorial Reviews

"I've been lucky enough to get hold of an early copy, and I’ve given it a read. For me, it's a book which really brings to life Southend's key moments in their history. You see in the trials and tribulations through the vivid, colourful and descriptive eyes of a fan... A real look at the history of the Shrimpers through the eyes of a fan who lived in Essex for 40 years before heading to Australia."

BBC Radio Essex - Warren Muggleton