This Is Why I Did It

I’m absolutely delighted to say I’ve received messages from three of the founding/original Manchester Corinthians who were there in 1948 (yes, 1948!) when the club was first established. They’ve each got the book and were interviewed and their comments have really pleased me. They – and the hundreds of women who played for this remarkable, pioneering and important club – are the reason I wanted to push and promote this club’s history.

The three I’ve heard from are Dorothy Allcock, Maureen Charlton and Flo Cloake (the names they played under). When I started researching in detail the club I was told frequently I’d never track down a player from the club’s opening season, so it was wonderful when these three came forward to be interviewed.

Their comments now that they’ve seen the book are deeply satisfying and I am so grateful that they – and the other 50+ Corinthians interviewed for the book – allowed me to tell their stories.

Flo lives in the States now and sent this text:

I just thought I would let you know my book arrived today. I haven’t finished reading it yet, but Gary what an amazing job you did, absolutely perfect about the history of the Corinthians… It’s about the whole team over the years and how they progressed. An amazing book… lots of love and hugs Flo.

Maureen’s son sent the following email:

A fantastic job Gary, amazing! Mum is delighted, and especially the picture of her and dad, and poem excerpt, a few tears… Mum is enthralled with the details,  many memories coming back… Mum was delighted to see some of her photos, especially the corinthians badge.

Dorothy’s son sent a nice email too and says she’s still watching her football, tennis and snooker, alongside reading the book of course. It was an absolute pleasure meeting Dorothy, Maureen and Flo and it was wonderful to spend time with them talking about events from almost eighty years ago, when they were teenagers and first playing football. Their stories are of course featured in the book and over the coming weeks and months. I’ll be talking at some events about them and the other Corinthians. There will also be articles.

The book consists of 356 pages. It is illustrated throughout and you can order copies signed by me below for £25 (including UK postage and packaging).

If you live outside the UK then please contact for details of additional postage costs. Note: It may be worth checking your national Amazon website as they do claim they can send copies across Europe and North America (for example) at reasonable costs. I cannot vouch for their service but do suggest checking locally.

To order direct from me, you do not need to have a PayPal account – use the ‘Pay with PayPal’ button below and it will give you the option to pay by credit/debit card without creating a PayPal account.

If you want a taste of what’s in the book then watch this wonderfully produced video, filmed at the Corinthians reunion in December. A few former players talk and I explain a little about the club too. For details of the video and to watch it see:

https://www.imprintfilms.co.uk/oh-what-a-team

If you’ve issues watching the video there (youtube may ask you to sign in) you can also watch it here (click on the ‘Watch on Youtube’, bottom left if your link doesn’t work):

I’d like to thank all at Imprint Films for doing the video. In the spirit of Percy Ashley himself, they have funded the production of this video themselves and have the desire to see the Corinthians story spread widely. This is, of course, something I totally believe in myself. We need to spread this story and let the entire world know about the Corinthians.

Please share the video and, while you’re at it, spread the news about the book too. Both are self funded and we need help to spread the word.