I’m delighted to say that a revised and updated edition of Manchester Corinthians: The Authorised History will be published this year with those ordering before the end of August getting the chance to have their name published in the book. As with the first edition this book will be non-profit. Also, anyone ordering a copy now will get their name published in the book as a supporter of the project. Copies can be ordered now (see below). This promises to build further on the original book, viewed as a landmark publication. Income from the book will continue to be used to promote these remarkable women; stage events for them and capture their stories for posterity. Over fifty Corinthians were interviewed for the first edition and others have been found and interviewed for this updated version. This includes additional Corinthians from the 1940s, adding to the three founding Corinthians interviewed for the first edition. Their voices are so important to the story of this remarkable club.
I’m determined to ensure all Corinthians are remembered so please also get in touch if you’re a Corinthian who may have slipped through the net somehow.
Order before 31 August 2026 and you will get your name published within a special roll of honour within the book and it will be sent out to all subscribers on publication at the start of October 2026. This will be before it appears in any shop. Sadly, due to postage costs the book can only be posted to UK addresses. You do not need to have a PayPal account to order – 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.
UK ONLY – one copy of Manchester Corinthians: The Authorised History 2nd edition (paperback)
The story of a pioneering women’s club as told to Gary James by those who were there. This is for one paperback book at £19.95 ()incl UK postage and packaging). Outside UK contact for additional postage costs.
£19.95
Opportunities to buy multiple copies, sponsor the book or donate exist too. Please email Gary@GJFootballArchive.com for more information on those opportunities. For those wishing to order ten copies then a special panel will be included within the book thanking you for supporting the Corinthians’ project & book, plus you’ll get ten copies for the discounted total of £150 (including UK deliver).
UK ONLY – Ten copies of Manchester Corinthians: The Authorised History 2nd edition (paperback)
The story of a pioneering women’s club as told to Gary James by those who were there. This is for ten paperback books at £150 (incl UK postage and packaging). Outside UK contact for additional postage costs.
£150.00
Note: the cover is currently being redesigned and is likely to be different to the ones shown here.
I”m absolutely delighted that my book ‘Manchester Corinthians The Authorised History’ has been long listed for the Lord Aberdare Prize at the British Society of Sports History, alongside several prominent historians of sport and serious researchers/writers. It’s an incredible field and I’m particularly pleased with these words from the judges (see image).
Thanks to everyone involved in the process and thanks to all those Corinthians who, over the last 11 years or so, have allowed me to research, write and promote their story. Over 50 were interviewed for the book. An updated version will be out in October but it can be ordered now AND anyone who orders it before the end of August will get their name printed in the book. Details here:
Every Monday I’m posting a section from my book ‘The Emergence of Footballing Cultures: Manchester 1840-1919’. It tells the story of the origins of men’s football in Manchester and discusses the birth of both City and United plus the clubs that predated them such as Hulme Athenaeum, Manchester AFC, Birch etc. Today’s section is the introduction to the book. There is material in every section of the book that should interest fans of Manchester football, no matter which team you support, or academic researchers/historians.
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I had a nice reminder this morning that a year ago (Saturday 2 August 2025) we managed to stage another wonderful free event celebrating the pioneering Manchester Corinthians women’s team. This included a film show, talk and (most importantly) interviews with 6 Corinthians covering every era of the club’s existence. There were other Corinthians in the audience plus Wayne Murray (representing his mum and auntie – Elaine & Shirley Orange), Issy Pollard (Doncaster Belles & England) and Dennis Tueart (Manchester City, Sunderland and England).
Keeping to the best traditions of the Corinthians this free event also raised funds for the Hebden Bridge Women’s walking football team – several players were in attendance wearing their football shirts too.
Hebden Bridge was important to some of the promotion of the Corinthians’ stories. It was here in 2021 that I first publicly announced the idea of erecting a blue plaque. That was at an earlier free event and the 2025 free event at the Hebden Bridge Picture House completed the journey to some extent. Thanks to the cinema for all their support too.
The film shown was by Imprint and one of the people behind it, John Tueart, was also present. Imprint have made their film free to download too so please watch the following and share the link widely ( let’s get everybody talking about the Corinthians). Here’s the link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AWsGr3G_izE
Thanks again to all who attended, especially those who donated money for the local walking football team and those who bought the book (£5 from every book sold also went to the local team). Please keep spreading the word. Here are a few photos from the event:
Every Monday starting on 3 August 2025 I’m posting a section from my book ‘The Emergence of Footballing Cultures: Manchester 1840-1919’. It tells the story of the origins of men’s football in Manchester and discusses the birth of both City and United plus the clubs that predated them such as Hulme Athenaeum, Manchester AFC, Birch etc. There is material in every section of the book that should interest fans of Manchester football, no matter which team you support, or academic researchers/historians.
Subscribing costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) or you could sign up for a year at the discounted price of £20 per year. Every subscriber gets access to everything posted on the site.
On Saturday 18 July I had a great time as guest of the Mid Sussex Manchester City Supporters Club at Burgess Hill Town FC. I really enjoyed the evening chatting with so many dedicated Blues and they also were keen to hear about the Manchester Corinthians (if you don’t know about them have a search through this site for stories and information). During the evening it was great to talk about some of my past meetings and interviews with Khaldoon, Kompany, Thaksin, Allison, Mercer, Swales, Bell and more. It was great reliving the early years of my writing when Joe Mercer wrote the foreword to my first book and then Busby and Mercer did similar for my second book. It was great to see that Daryn Buckley still had the book I personally signed for him back in 1989.
Thanks to all in attendance for making this a special night.
If you run a supporters club, history group, Women’s Institute branch, Rotary Club or similar group I’d be happy to talk about the Corinthians, City, the origins of football, Manchester, Hulme Athenaeum or any other area of research I’ve focused on. Feel free to get in touch.
Thanks again to all at Mid Sussex Blues for making me so welcome.
There are not many blue plaques in Manchester dedicated to football – There’s the Manchester Corinthians blue plaque (see elsewhere on this site for details of the campaign); the Football League first meeting (a red plaque); Newton Heath’s first pitch (a red plaque which is the standard colour for Manchester sites); the Fallowfield FA Cup final (black if I remember right) and that’s about it. Oh, there’s also the Bank Street plaque for United’s former home (just behind the velodrome/BMX centre). There used to be one to mark Manchester City’s birth positioned on the Aces public house close to Clowes Street in West Gorton BUT this vanished shortly after the pub closed many years ago. This image shows the plaque as it looked when I took this photo in the early 2000s. It’s seeing this plaque years ago that first got me thinking about marking footballing sites in Manchester.
What happened to it? It was obviously stolen but where is it today?
It was positioned incorrectly and should have been a few streets away to mark the actual first pitch of St Mark’s or maybe even the church itself.
If anyone knows where this plaque is today then please get in touch. Incidentally, I think the plaque marking United’s Newton Heath birth is missing too but I’ve not checked on it recently.
There are other plaques around Greater Manchester connected with football, for example the one at Stalybridge for Bert Whalley (again, see elsewhere on the site for the details of that).
Broadcast live on 25 March in 1970 was the This is Your Life TV episode with Manchester City boss Joe Mercer as the subject. Here are the details plus a special recording which supporters of all the clubs Joe was involved with could be interested in.
This Is Your Life was viewed at the time as significant recognition for a lifetime’s achievement. Only major stars and personalities were featured in those days, and the main idea would be that the subject of the programme would be surprised by the sudden appearance of presenter Eamonn Andrews and his ‘Big Red Book’. The subject would then be whisked away to a studio or other location where a variety of figures from the person’s life would be brought out to tell anecdotes and the like. The main part of the show would be broadcast live.
This is Your Life Joe Mercer 1970
Back in 1970 young Manchester City supporter John Stapleton was working on the series and he suggested they feature Joe Mercer as the topic of one show. John, who went on to be a prominent broadcaster with a well-regarded TV career, was interviewed by me a few years back and we discussed the programme and John’s part in the idea of featuring Joe: ‘I did it purely for the benefit of me and my dad. Eamon Andrews, the presenter, had of course a great interest in sport and I put the idea to him and the rest of the production team. Together with Norah, Joe’s wife who in recent years I often sat with at games sharing her boiled sweets, we concocted a situation where Joe and Malcolm were in a London hotel before a trip to watch a European game in 1970. Malcolm disappeared – deliberately as part of the show though Joe didn’t know this – and Joe was called to reception urgently. Eamon leaped out to do the big “This Is Your Life” reveal and Joe had no idea whatsoever. It was a great day for us all and Joe was thoroughly deserving of it as well.’
Joe was staying at a Hilton Hotel in London. As John described, He had been due to fly with Malcolm Allison to the continent to watch ECWC semi-final opponents Schalke but he had received a message to say the game was off. It was all a ruse of course. That night television viewers watched as Eamonn Andrews surprised Joe at the hotel reception desk: ‘Joe Mercer, former England playing star, now manager of Cup winning Manchester City, tonight. This Is Your Life!’
Eamon Andrews This is Your Life Joe Mercer 1970
At the start of the show the City team appeared. This had been an extremely busy time for the Blues. Over a 18 day period City had played two League games, the League Cup final, the second leg of the ECWC quarter-final with Coimbra and found time to work with television to honour their manager. This live show occurred on Wednesday 25 March and City were to face Derby in the League on 27th and Manchester United on 28th, plus they had to play the first leg of the ECWC semi-final with Schalke on 1st. It was incredible that a team would be involved in this at such a busy time but that’s the way it was.
This is Your Life Joe Mercer 1970 MCFC squad
As Joe explains in the show Malcolm Allison was nowhere to be seen. He had been staying with Joe at the hotel and the City manager commented: ‘I’m a great sleeper you see, and subconsciously I heard Malcolm getting up and I thought, oh, he’s going to the bathroom. I thought, well, he hasn’t come back, so he must be having a bath, and then I went back to sleep. I woke about ten and Malcolm had gone, but occasionally this happens – Malcolm disappears!’
Andrews explained that Allison had left early to watch the match which was still on. Joe was flabbergasted: ‘He’s left all his clothes! I’ve had to pack his bag as well!’
During the course of the show, Andrews informed Joe that Alf Ramsey had named the squad he was to take to the 1970 World Cup: ‘I know you haven’t had a chance to hear the news, but I’m going to tell it to you now, that two of your boys have been named by Alf for the World Cup – Francis Lee and Colin Bell. And two more in the twelve reserves – Mike Summerbee and Alan Oakes. Congratulations lads, and to the whole of the Manchester City.’
Joe was overjoyed.
Subscribers to this website are now in for a special treat as an audio of the entire episode has been preserved and can now be listened to here:
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You can listen to this special recording of Joe Mercer, Eamon Andrews, Dixie Dean, Malcolm Allison, Stan Cullis, Stanley Matthews etc. by subscribing. It costs £3 per month (cancel anytime) to access everything posted since 1 Oct 2022 or there’s an annual option (below).
You can listen to this special recording of Joe Mercer, Eamon Andrews, Dixie Dean, Malcolm Allison, Stan Cullis, Stanley Matthews etc. by subscribing. It costs £20 per year (cancel anytime) to access everything posted since the site began in December 2020, that includes history talks, videos, a couple of my books, hundreds of articles etc.
Joe appeared on several other This Is Your Life shows including in November 1988 when Tom Finney was the subject and in 1980 when Emlyn Hughes was. He also appeared on two for Matt Busby, one in 1958 and one in 1971 (which opened at Maine Road).
The Programme details for the Joe Mercer episode are:
Edition No: 274
Subject No: 276
Broadcast live: Wed 25 Mar 1970
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Venue: Euston Road Studios
Series: 10
Edition: 18
Director: Margery Baker
Producer: Robert Tyrrell
City supporter and broadcaster John Stapleton worked on the show
The guests were:
Norah – wife
members of Manchester City FC team
Francis Lee
Colin Bell
Mike Summerbee
Alan Oakes
Alan Percival
David – son
David & Joan Mercer, This is Your Life Joe Mercer 1970
Joan – daughter-in-law
Arthur – brother
Stan Cullis
Stan Cullis, This is Your Life Joe Mercer 1970
Billy Dixie Dean
Billy ‘Dixie’ Dean, This is Your Life Joe Mercer 1970
Jim Morris
Charles Palmer
Matt Busby
Frank Soo
Walley Barnes
Maurice Edelston
Bernard Joy
Roy White
George Hardwick
Raich Carter
Neil Franklin
Stanley Matthews
Stanley Matthews, This is Your Life Joe Mercer 1970
Filmed tributes:
Malcolm Allison
Susan – granddaughter
Albert Dyson – father-in-law
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I was delighted to be one of the guests today when a Historic England blue plaque was unveiled for groundbreaking footballer Frank Soo. Soo was the first player of Chinese heritage to play for England and he was born in Buxton. HIs dad was from China, his mum was from Manchester. The unveiling today took place in the town and members of the Soo family were present today. HIstorian Martin Polley, representing Historic England, made a great speech about the player and other speeches were made by family members, local historians and blue plaque campaigners. Guests included Max Portman, representing the British Society of Sports History. Stoke City sent a message too. Here are a few images from the day.
You can find out more about Frank Soo (who was a teammate of Joe Mercer’s for England) and the campaign to erect a blue plaque to him here:
You can find out about other footballing blue plaques mentioned on my site by searching on ‘plaque’ below. Here you can read about the blue plaque campaign on the Manchester Corinthian Ladies FC:
Ten years ago today (3 July) the new Manchester City badge was officially launched at the Cityzens Weekend. It was also the formal official welcome for new manager Pep Guardiola. There was a surreal moment for me when I was asked to go on stage to be interviewed about the new badge.
I had been consulted by the club on the history of all of City’s badges, emblems and similar for about a year or so, and had performed a series of talks to fans throughout the consultation period.
This was the most detailed badge consultation had ever performed with fans at any club – sadly too many clubs impose a badge without listening to fans. Doing the talks as part of the consultation helped bring out the stories of each emblem and why it was significant – or not! Understanding why, for example, the red rose was introduced in 1972 following the takeover of the club by Joe Smith & Co. or how the 3 emblazoned lines had always been a part of City’s badge (apart from 1972 and the Swales years that followed) helped some determine what elements mattered most to them.
You can find out more about City’s badge history here:
In 2016 I was the warm up act for Pep so it’s a wonder anybody listened. It was a great, positive day for the club and for all of us there. The years since Pep’s arrival have been truly outstanding. We all had hope on this day in 2016 but who’d have thought it would have been as great as it has been?
Gary James' Football Archive 