When I was seventeen, I saw England win the football world cup!

In fact, I saw every single game played at Wembley during the 1966 championships and still have match day tickets and memorabilia from those days.

The significance of what I had witnessed at such a tender age has only recently begun to dawn on me as England struggle to try and recapture those halcyon days and the ever-increasing media hype never fails to dredge up memories of 1966 at every subsequent International football tournament.

In writing this book I have tried to recapture the mounting excitement felt by the whole Nation as England progressed steadily to the final and then my experience of the epic final itself and the aftermath.

My view is one of an ordinary football supporter and reflects the tensions felt at each game and the witty and sometimes cruel chants and comments of the crowd.

I have also tried to recreate the era as a social history from a working/middle class family perspective. The book includes workplace and kitchen table conversations and the humour of the age.

It also encapsulates the era of ‘swinging London’ which was then the world epicentre for music and fashion. It has recollections of a teenager’s baptism into early blues and rock music and first experiences of dating and dining out.

It was only sixty years ago, but in those days there were no computers or mobile phones let alone internet and social media, there was black & white television with only two channels and no dishwashers, or speed cameras!

There was also certainly no Premier League and footballers earned relatively modest income and lived quite ordinary lives
I hope you enjoy the experience as you find yourself transported back to an age when English football really did rule the world!

Steve Batchelor, author