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Martin Cloake is a writer and editor and who lives in London. He’s worked in journalism for over 20 years and he’s a published author.

He also does some teaching in production journalism and sports journalism. He says, “I don’t blog because I think anyone should be interested, but because as someone whose skill is – I’d like to think – using words, not maintaining a blog is a little like refusing to use electricity.”

Who knows what the future holds for football? Given the state of the modern game, it is unlikely to offer up the romance of the past.

There are a handful or authors preserving our collective memories. Writers like Martin are important because his books will become an vital element in the written archive of Tottenham Hotspur. Martin is next week’s extra special guest on Hotspur’s Halk Hour.

The Boys From White hart Lane. They were the last great Spurs team. A tight-knit group of London lads laced with Latin creativity, Yorkshire grit and Scottish genius, playing for a few hundred quid a week and the glory of putting on the Tottenham shirt. They won two FA Cups and a UEFA Cup together, they went drinking together and they appeared on Top of the Pops together. They were The Boys From White Hart Lane.

Renowned Tottenham authors Martin Cloake and Adam Powley have tracked down their childhood heroes to produce a book of wonderfully vivid and candid interviews with ten members of the team including Steve Perryman, Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa.

It is a book that not only opens the doors of the White Hart Lane dressing room during this iconic period for the club, but takes the reader back in time to a football world before Premier League, multi-billionaire foreign owners and millionaire reserve players sitting on the bench in yellow boots and headbands.

Packed with insight, revelations and wonderful stories – including the training ground prank which saw a player break his toe on a breeze block, the all-night drinking session in Swaziland and the story of how Ossie dented the FA Cup – The Boys From White Hart Lane is an intimate and eye-opening portrait of the men who put the glory back into Spurs. More…

The Sound Of The Crowd. At Tottenham Hotspur, the 1882 fan movement aims to recapture the days when “how loud you sing and how passionate you became wasn’t dependent on how well the team was playing.”

Spurs author and fan Martin Cloake talks to the fans organising at Spurs, and places them in a context of a tradition of independent supporter organisation at the club, and of a wider movement to re-imagine the future of football.

Updated and re-issued, this classic account of Spurs’ dramatic 2003/04 season puts the fans at the centre of the tale. More…

We Are Tottenham: Voices From White Hart Lane. Exposing the myth of the ‘average football fan’ and providing a compelling account of the joy, frustration and and absurdity of following a Premier League club.

Crammed with insight, humour, anecdote and the unique passion of the football fan, this book was described by Hunter Davies as “The sort of record every club should have.” More…

Danny Blanchflower Sports Shot. This extended essay looks at Danny Blanchflower’s life and career and attempts to explain why he is still such an inspirational figure today.

“The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It is nothing of the kind. The game is about glory, it is about doing things in style and with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom.” More…

Glenn Hoddle Sports Shot. This outspoken, thought-provoking profile celebrates Hoddle’s wonderful talent as a player and manager, recalling the glory days with Spurs, the highs and lows of his managerial career.

As well as accuses the wider game of wasting one of its greatest talents. More…

Arthur Rowe Sports Shot. Martin argues that he had a much more pivotal role in the development of the modern game than is generally recognised. More…

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