The Football Factory is driven by its two main
characters--late-twenties warehouseman Tommy Johnson and retired
ex-soldier Bill Farrell. Tommy is angry at his situation in life and
those running the country. Outside of work, he is a lively, outspoken
character, living for his time with a gang of football hooligans, the
excitement of their fights and the comradeship he finds with his
friends. He is a violent man, at the same time moral and intelligent.
Bill, meanwhile, is a former Second World War hero who helped liberate a
concentration camp and married a survivor. He is a strong, principled
character who sees the self-serving political and media classes for what
they are. Tommy and Bill have shared feelings, but express their views
in different ways. Born at another time, they could have been the other.
As the book unfolds both come to their own crossroads and have important
decisions to make.
The Football Factory is a book about modern-day pariahs, people
reduced to the level of statistics by years of hypocritical,
self-serving party politics. It is about the insulted, marginalised,
unseen. Graphic and disturbing, at times very funny, The Football
Factory is a rush of literary adrenalin.
