BOOKS

ױ Beckham and Ferguson: Divided They Stand

Author: Jason Thomas
Paperback 192 pages
Released Date: August 15, 2003
Publisher: Sutton Publishing
On 17 June 2003 it was finally over: England's superstar footballer was leaving Manchester United for Real Madrid. The Becks and Fergie era was at an end. This is the story behind one of the greatest bust-ups in sport. After more than a decade together David Beckham and Alex Ferguson went their separate ways, but how and why did football's most famous relationship fall apart? From before his 14th birthday David Beckham was destined to play for the club he idolised. Alex Ferguson was the man who recognized what his talent meant for United, gave Beckham the opportunity to develop, put him in the first team and backed him after the notorious sending off against Argentina. The old man and the new man seemed made for each other. But by the time the notorious boot went flying across the Man Utd dressing-room, everything had changed. Jason Tomas looks behind the headlines at the relationship between Ferguson and Beckham, what brought them close together and what pulled them apart. And as fans across the world swap red shirts for white, he asks how they will get on without each other.

ױ Beckham (Polity Celebrities S.)

Paperback 216 pages
Released Date: February 2003
Author: Ellis Cashmore
Publisher: Polity Press
There has never been an athlete quite like David Beckham, or, more accurately, there have been any number of athletes like Beckham, but never a celebrity. His global status is challenged only by Tiger Woods: all over the world, people adore, venerate, even worship the boy with decorously pale looks and a wife from the once mighty Spice Girls. In this serious analysis of Beckham and the culture of which he is part, Ellis Cashmore strips away the public persona of Beckham to examine the real reasons why Beckham has become the celebrity athlete par excellence. Is it because he is a great football player? Because of his supermodel looks, or his debonair dress sense? His rejection of the macho values typically associated with football? His marriage to Posh? Cashmore asks all the questions but uncovers different answers. Beckham has come to the fore at a unique time in history: when celebrity is venerated, when sport is entertainment and when Essex boys are icons. This is a book about the Beckham phenomenon. It examines the cult of celebrity, the changing configurations of the sports industry, the evolution of football culture, the role of advertising and marketing, the globalization of sports, entertainment and music and, most centrally, the emergence of an individual who has transcended the traditional boundaries between sport and entertainment.



ױ Posh and Beck

Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books
Released Date: 2 Jun 2003
Language: English
Author: Andrew Morton
Andrew Morton, infamous for his exposé biographies of Diana, Princess of Wales and Monica Lewinsky, turns his steely gaze toward the champagne-tinted world of Mr and Mrs Beckham. Be warned--he does not like what he sees. As he has made his name in the world of the high-profile, headline-grabbing exposé, Morton's fans expect a certain edge to his writing. The antithesis of the current trend for syrupy "so-then-I" works, the biographer is known for pulling no punches in his quest for a page-turning, titillating read. Certainly the research here is thorough (although fans will notice it is not exhaustive). The facts, which are not obviously tampered with, form the framework for the narrative... although it is not the facts per se which will make this book a talking point. Already the subject of a courtroom battle and sturdy pre-hearing settlement, Posh & Becks is basically one man's interpretation of the motives of the millennium's golden couple. While seeming to harbour certain affections for David Beckham, who is depicted as a long-suffering under-the-thumb kind of bloke, Morton returns to familiar black widow territory when he paints his portrait of Victoria.
The writer's great skill, for better or worse, is his ability to colour a portrayal through editing the story he is here to tell. By his pen, Victoria Beckham is in parts controlling, intelligent, needy, narcissistic and entrepreneurial. Having (albeit only as part of the Spice Girls) surrounded herself with media professionals who guide her well, be it in publicity, marketing or whatever, Victoria is chided for being power-hungry, where Morton would (perhaps?) deal a man astute instead. Character witnesses are produced, of course, to back up his case, but it is his choice of anti-Posh testimonies, rather than what they actually say, which is most telling. As Andrew Morton seems to be so shocked by the goings on in the industry which is entertainment, perhaps he should write an exposé of the business as a whole. In doing that, however, he would not be able to use the name of a superstar beside his own in order to sell his product. In the meantime, Madonna Louise Ciccone had better watch out. Apparently the drafts are already underway.

So You Think You Know David Beckham?

Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
Released: 17 April 2003
Language: English
From his childhood and football career to his personal life, this quiz book invites fans to test their knowledge of David Beckham with over 1000 questions. Do you know how he met Victoria? When he started playing football? How many tattoos he's got? When he first captained England? How many different haircuts he's had? This book has the answers to all these and many more.

David Beckham: Made in Manchester

Hardcover: 144 pages
Publisher: Dewi Lewis Media Ltd
Released Date: 1 May 2004
Language: English
A unique and revealing collection of images of one of the most famous celebrities on the planet. This extraordinary book charts David Beckham’s rise to celebrity during his years in Manchester. At the age of three David Beckham’s parents gave him a Manchester United shirt as a Christmas present, beginning a relationship with the club that was to last a quarter of a century. He signed schoolboy terms in May 1988, eventually joining United as a trainee in July 1991 and moving up to Manchester to begin what was to become an extraordinary story. From relatively early days, right up to his departure for Real Madrid, Eamonn and James Clarke, the Manchester paparrazi, have recorded his unofficial story – even before he came to prominence as a player and well before his meteoric rise to iconic status. They were there when he was a young player finding his feet at the club, there to see him out and about with girlfriends or team colleagues, there when "Posh Spice" arrived on the scene, and there to see him becoming the proud father and family man. And they were the first to photograph him, with the cut above his eye, walking in Manchester after the boot-kicking incident with Sir Alex Ferguson, when it began to dawn on everyone that David Beckham’s time at Manchester United was almost over. In an introductory text, and through extended captions, Eamonn and James Clarke describe their work and encounters with David Beckham. The two brothers have worked as the Manchester paparrazi for the last ten years. Their images appear regularly on the front pages of the press in the UK as well as internationally in magazines.

The David Beckham Joke Book

Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Blake Publishing
Released Date: 30 Oct 2003
Language: English
David Beckham is by far the nation's hero. In Britain and across the world he is adored by millions of people for many reasons, but every fan has one thing in common - a David Beckham joke. This volume collates them all - Beckham gags, Posh gags, Brooklyn gags, Romeo gags - the collection is aimed at Beckham friends and foe alike.