AS THE rock era enters it’s fourth decade, the demand for books about bands and rock stars, past and present, is stronger than ever. Acres of forests have been levelled to satisfy the insatiable thirst among music fans for in-depth critical analysis, as well as solid facts and useless trivia about their favourite artists.

Not surprisingly, there are as many different kinds of rock books as there are genres of music — with works ranging from the absolutely compelling to the trite and mediocre. Bookshops nowadays devote whole sections to music books, stocking everything from cheap, badly written, cut ’n’ paste jobs, to painstakingly researched, lovingly written tomes that include every last morsel of detail and minutiae on their chosen subject.

There have been literally hundreds of books on the major artists like The Beatles, The Stones, and Elvis — some worthwhile, but most written from third-hand sources. Mark Lewisohn’s accurately researched, Complete Beatles Chronicle, A Journey Through America With The Rolling Stones by Robert Greenfield and Elvis: The Final Years, by Jerry Hopkins are just some recommended works on these artists.

The U2 book industry continues unabated (see latest additions below) but Eamon Dunphy’s flawed but well-written Unforgettable Fire still gives the best overview of the band’s rise to prominence. For a look at the early years, Another Time, Another Place by Bill Graham is the most accurate and knowledgable work to date. Not forgetting The U2 File and its companion work, U2: Three Chords And The Truth, both of which chronicle the band’s progress as seen through the pages of Hot Press, offering a uniquely compelling blow-by-blow view of the band’s growth to superstardom.

Rock reference works like The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles, and its American equivalent, The Billboard Charts: Top Pop Singles simply list and annotate chart entries and placings. Others, like Dave Marsh’s Heart Of Rock And Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made and The Rolling Stone Album Guide offer deeper analysis and occasionally passionate criticism of the music, as well as proving invaluable sources of information for those seeking out rare musical gems.

A handful of rock books have achieved near-classic status over the years, becoming sought-after collectors items and essential reading for students of rock history. Among these are Greil Marcus’ Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock ’n’ Roll Music, a provocative study of American rock culture which focuses on artists like Presley, Sly Stone and The Band and their relationship with American society.

The Sound Of The City: The Rise Of Rock and Roll by Charlie Gillett is a scholarly history of rock with a detailed analysis of early rock and an assessment of regional styles. Similarly, jazz singer and one-time Guardian pop critic, George Melly’s Revolt Into Style is an interesting early attempt to explain the British rock boom in the 1960’s.

Other more recently published and recommended works include: X-Ray by Kinks leader, Ray Davies; The Dark Stuff, by Nick Kent; Last Train To Memphis: The Rise Of Elvis Presley, by Peter Guaralnick and Lou Reed by Victor Bockris.

Classics worth picking up are: Catch A Fire: The Life Of Bob Marley by Timothy White, Morrissey And Marr: The Severed Alliances – The Definitive Story of The Smiths by Johnny Rogan and Scuse Me While I Kiss The Sky: The Life Of Jimi Hendrix by David Henderson;

Finally, budding rock aspirants should try to get their hands on a copy of the cynically titled, Diary Of A Rock And Roll Star, by Mott The Hoople singer, Ian Hunter. Ostensibly, a journal of the band’s 1972 US tour in the wake of their first American hit, All The Young Dudes, the book goes way beyond that as Hunter philosophises on the frustrations of touring, the futility of fame and the dubious rewards of success. “The chances of making it are getting harder all the time,” he writes. “When I started out all you needed was a VOX AC 30 and a Framus bass and you were nearly there.” And those lines were written over twenty years ago!

This year sees more music books than ever hitting the shelves with Omnibus Press being one the biggest publishers with a staggering range of new titles. These and others are detailed below.

U2: Faraway So Close by B.P. Fallon. Not so much a book as a happening between the pages, this on-the-spot diary of the Zoo Tour written by the self-styled King Boogaloo Mr Ramalama himself (or Bernard Patrick to you and me) offers a verbal and visual overload of the most adventurous and innovative tour. The photos, mostly taken with the band off-guard, are also snapped by camera-happy vibster.

Race Of Angels: Ireland and the Genesis of U2 by John Waters is arguably the most ambitious and by turns most controversial work on the band and the society from which they evolved. Using complex historical, sociological and political analogies, Waters advances the argument that U2 are the quintessential representation of modern post-colonial Ireland. And that’s just the first page! (only joking). A challenging and thought-provoking read that sometimes poses more questions than it answers but which ultimately succeeds in setting the band in the context of their spiritual homeland.

Shane McGowan — The Last Of The Celtic Soul Rebels by Ian O’Doherty chronicles the life and bad times of the acknowledged songwriting genius. From his childhood days in Puckaun, Co Tipperary, emigration to London with his family at the age of seven, right through to the alcohol-soaked years of The Pogues and beyond, O’Doherty endeavours to delve into the heart and mind of McGowan.

Nirvana: Tribute by Suzi Black tells the band’s story from their early days in Seattle right up to the tragic suicide of Kurt Cobain. It examines the band’s musical legacy and the aftermath of their untimely demise. With Nirvana’s Unplugged a strong favourite to become the Christmas album No. 1, fans of the band will be interested in the historical background to this vitally important band.

Neil Young — The Visual Documentary by John Robertson follows Young’s career from The Squires in Canada up to the present day and includes details of his work with Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills Nash & Young, Crazy Horse and others. It lists every known gig and recording session and every collaboration along the way, offering a unique insight into the music of a rock star who has always refused to play the corporate game. The book examines Young’s influence on many bands today and is illustrated with scores of colour and black & white photographs.

Reeling In The Years by Brian Sweet is the first ever biography of Steely Dan who, despite being hugely popular over the past two decades, have remained something of an enigma to many people. It tells the story of how Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, a couple of cynical New York jazz fans wormed their way into a record contract and astonished critics with their first album Can’t Buy A Thrill in 1973. Unlike most of their contemporaries Steely Dan rarely gave interviews and after some early bad experiences on the road they refused to tour. In Reeling In The Years, Brian Sweet (who also edits Metal Leg the UK-based Steely Dan fanzine) draws back the veil of secrecy and follows their career through the early years right up to their decision to reform the band. A fascinating read.

Aerosmith Live! is a full colour book of the American metal supergroup shot live on stage throughout their twenty-five year career. With dozens of photos of Steve Tyler, Jo Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer, plus a free pull out poster of Steve Tyler and a 5,000 word essay written by top UK HM writer Mark Putterford, it takes the reader on a journey through the colourful life of one of the worlds biggest bands. Aerosmith Live! also features a full discography of the band.

Guns N’ Roses — The Pictures is another heavy metal picture book with text and photographs by George Chin who first met the band in London in 1987. He has since taken over 2,000 photos of them (lucky him – ed.) and he includes the best of these in this book. There are rare shots of the band relaxing, Slash in the swimming pool, sound checks, backstage and other behind-the-scenes photos, which tell the story of the band through the lens of George Chin.

The Lemonheads by Mick St. Michael is the first major biography of the Evan Dando-fronted combo who have given us gems like It’s A Shame About Ray and Come On Feel The Lemonheads. The book fills in the gaps on the band’s early years, detailing the three independent albums they released before signing to Atlantic Records. Also includes a full discography and is illustrated with scores of colour photos.

WAY BACK in 1982, Dutchman Pim Jal de la Parra, went along to a Talking Heads gig in Leiden, Holland. He thought they were pretty good at the time but the support band, an outfit from Dublin, Ireland, called U2, absolutely knocked him out. “I’ve been a big fan ever since,” he says. “I started buying their records and checking out their live performances whenever I could and I’ve never stopped to this day.”

He subsequently founded the highly acclaimed U2 fanzine Collectormania which he still edits and three years ago he set about the monumental task of compiling a complete documentary of the band’s almost 1,000 concerts —from the early days in Mount Temple up to the Zooropa tour of last year. The result is the impressive U2 Live, A Concert Documentary which chronologically lists every single U2 show, illustrating many of them with previously unpublished photos.

“It’s definitely the first book of it’s kind,” he says, “and as far as I know this is the first that is written and put together mainly by fans. I get sent a lot of stuff by readers of Collectormania and I’ve tried to collect as many photographs from all the different concerts. I particularly wanted to use shots that show the band’s close relationship with their audience — Bono jumping into the front rows or inviting fans onstage. I did a lot of hard research to get a hold of them.”

Not surprisingly, he found the early years of the band’s existance, the most difficult to account for and had to rely on other publications and information from fans. “After 1981 or so, the information is pretty complete,” he says. “I actually used the Hot Press files for a lot of the early stuff which I found useful.”

Has he had any co-operation from the fab four themselves in his trojan efforts? “Well, I’ve met them a couple of times and I always send about a dozen copies of the fanzine to Principal Management requesting them to pass them onto the band which they do. Actually, at a concert in Zurich in 1992, Paul McGuinness stood in front of me and I tapped him on the shoulder and told him who I was. He was very friendly to me and said the magazine was ‘impressively obsessive’ which I suppose is absolutely correct.”

• U2 Live — A Concert Documentary by Pimm Jal de la Parra is priced £14.95 stg.

The market for Irish language books is one of the significant growth areas in Irish publishing and with the impending establishment of Telefis Na Gaeilge and the general resurgence of interest in the langauge, it is likely to remain strong in the immediate future.

The problems and difficulties of marketing and selling Irish langauge books are eased considerably by the existence of Áis which is a book distribution and wholesale division of the semi-state body, Bord na Gaeilge. Antoine O’Coileain, the communications manager with Áis explains their role: “Basically we are a one-stop shop for any bookshop or institution looking for books in Irish,” he says. “We stock about two thousand titles in total including some schoolbooks, but it’s mainly poetry, literature, fiction and children’s books which are the big sellers at the moment. We also stock Irish language teaching material including courses and tapes.”

Recently published Irish language titles include: Stigmata by Padraig Standún a story written in fluent, simple Connemara Irish about the impact made by a returned “fallen woman” on a remote rural district; Fánaíocht I gContae Mhaigh Eo by Seamus Mag Uidhir, an account of the culture, folklore and landscape of his own County Mayo, which is enhanced by Ron Rosenstock’s atmosphere-laden photographs; Ar Son Na Gaeilge, by Proinsias Mac Aonghusa, a history of Conradh na Gaeilge by its former president in its centenary year; Scathach by Colm Breathnach, the author’s third collection of verse which won the 1994 Oireachtas Poetry Award; Seoda i Leabharlann Náisúnta na hÉireann, which is an attractive and handsomely illustrated selection by the National Library’s staff of their own favourites from the collection of maps, photographs, manuscripts, prints, drawings and books.

• Colm O’Hare

This month sees the release of two new Irish-published books tackling homophobia, dispelling the myths and stereotypes that still surround homosexuality, and dispensing some useful advice in the process.

Coming Out, by Suzy Byrne and Junior Larkin, published by Martello Books, is the complete guide do doing just that: it deals with how to inform your family, the issue of gay parenting, the lesbian and gay community in Ireland, the law and homosexuality, and, essentially, everything you ever wanted to know but didn’t have a clue who to ask.

One In Every Family is aimed less at homosexuals themselves than at friends, families, co-workers and anyone who comes in contact with gay people during the course of their daily lives – which is just about everyone. Written by Carole Wardlaw, a qualified counsellor, it also contains moving personal accounts by friends and families of lesbians and gay men, giving their side of the story. One In Every Family is published by Basement Press.

THE METHOD IN THEIR MADNESS

The Right To Imagination & Madness, is an intriguingly-titled collection of extended interviews with twenty alternative UK songwriters. Written by Birmingham-born history graduate and self-confessed music addict, Martin Roach, it includes lengthy, in-depth conversations with luminaries like Johnny Marr, Billy Bragg, Ian McNabb, Utah Saints and Pop Will Eat Itself. Roach was prompted to put the book together when he couldn’t find any material on the bands he himself liked.

“The main reason I wrote the book,” he explains, “was that I felt these artists have not been given enough space to write specifically about their music. Music magazines, understandably in most cases, tend to focus on other issues like politics, trends, fashion and media etc. I wanted to give them an uninterrupted platform to articulate on their craft as musicians and songwriters.”

Roach originally approached about eighty people before he began the project but many were unavailable and he excludes some of them, simply because their contributions weren’t particularly interesting.

“The ones you might expect to be entertaining are the best ones,” he says. “People like Billy Bragg, and Ian McCulloch — they have a lot to say and they say it very well. Johnny Marr, too, is just so encyclopedic about everything and his piece is really absorbing.

“What was most surprising,” he adds, “was people like The Prodigy or Aphex Twin – people you wouldn’t normally associate with songwriting as a craft – also have clear methods about the way they approach their songs and can articulate it as validly as the more traditional songwriters. That surprised me more than anything.”

Given that the book features both indie guitar bands and dance acts who are not necessarily appealing to the same audiences, who exactly is the book aimed at?

“I wasn’t really considering who might buy the book when I was writing it,” he says. “I just wanted to get the broadest possible range under the banner of ‘alternative music’. On the one hand, you have mellower stuff like Aphex Twin and at the other extreme you have acts like Napalm Death.

“The whole point of the book is that someone who might have never ever heard of a song by, say, Mega City Four, would read this and think ‘yeah they’ve got something interesting to say’ and they might go out and buy a record. If that happened, the book would have achieved its objective.”

• The Right To Imagination & Madness by Martin Roach. £9.99 Sterling

ANOTHER SHAY, ANOTHER DOLLAR

SHAY HEALY’S second novel Green Card Blues is a tough, fast-moving thriller set in the bars and tough streets of New York City. It tells the story of young Dublin musician, Danny Toner and his struggle against the odds to make it in the music business in the Big Apple. If it has a vaguely familiar ring about it, it’s because the book was written partly from real-life experiences.

“I did experience the whole thing of going to New York and living in the East Village and hustling around looking for a break,” says Healy. “I started out writing a straightforward book about a musician looking for a deal but before I knew it, the story had taken off in another direction and become a thriller.”

He makes the point that the location and setting of the story is more urban than suburban New York.

“It’s very much a story about the Manhattan Irish rather that The Bronx Irish or Brooklyn Irish,” he stresses. “The Bronx Irish would be more inclined to try to recreate Ireland in New York and live a ghetto-type existence, whereas the Manhattan Irish would assimilate more easily into the multi-cultural society. Bands like Black 47 are a good example of a Manhattan Irish group that have absorbed other influences as well as utilising their Irish background in their music.”

“I think the book is a good read,” he continues, “a glimpse of how the music business works — especially for anyone who’s thinking of going to New York to try and make it. I’m basically trying to write books for people who are not in the habit of reading books and to try to excite them into the notion that a story on a page can be entertainment. This country can be a bit precious with its notion of high literature and I’ve tried to convince the publishers to market it more like a record rather than a book.”

He hopes to bring Green Card Blues out in the States early next year and is also planning to put it down on tape, as he explains. “I’m going to dramatise the whole thing with actors narrating the story and doing the dialogue, which should be interesting. After that, I’ll be starting on a new book, which will complete the trilogy in that it’ll have a similar style and approach.”

Finally, given that Shay Healy has been almost everything there is to be in showbiz, music and broadcasting, has he ever thought about writing the story of his own life — in other words, an autobiography? “I have thought about it, but there are too many people still alive,” he laughs. “Unless I was prepared to hang everyone around me and emigrate permanently it wouldn’t be worth doing. “Also,” he concludes, “when you’ve been inside your own head too often, you discover that it’s not as interesting as you might think.”

IRISH PUBLISHERS have been winning an increasing share of the home market – a trend that began in 1987 and which has been growing ever since. Aran Book Publishers is a wholly owned Irish company whose aim is to commission the best of Irish writing from both new and established writers. They also have a commitment to high-quality production and try, where possible to use Irish printers, artist and designers.

With an emphasis on books for children and young teenagers, Aran have over a dozen new titles on release at the moment. Skinner by Des Cunnane, is an adventure for 12-14-year-olds featuring the trials and tribulations of a young Dublin schoolboy soccer player. Liam Tuohy, former Ireland Manager and coach described it as “An unstoppable combination of football, romance and adventure.”

The Guns Of Easter is a children’s historical book set in 1916 which tells the story of twelve-year-old Jimmy Conway’s experience as a reluctant adventurer one Easter weekend in Dublin. The story is inspired by a fragment from James Stephen’s account of the Rising.

Switchers, a teenager’s fantasy adventure, by Kate Thompson, is set in the suburbs and city of Dublin and The Arctic Circle! It’s described as “a story of romance and awesome adventure which sets out to question if reality without imagination is any use at all.”

The Fuchsia Stone, by Jim O’Leary, a children’s fantasy adventure featuring Cori Duignam from Peru who finds the Fuchsia Stone, saves a village from disaster and learns the secrets and strange powers of the Incas.

Mothership, by Martin Duffy, one of Ireland’s leading television and film screenwriters, is a science-fiction adventure, combining fast-paced story-telling with a chilling vision of the future.

The Last Starship, by Michael Carroll, winner of the Aisling Gheal international award for science-fiction in 1992. Robert Rankin best-selling author of the Armageddon trilogy said “The Last Starship takes us to the edge and then beyond. If the 1990s has produced one great new Science Fiction writer, it is Michael Carroll.”

Other titles in the Aran catalogue include A Student’s Guide To C Programming, by Paul Kelly, Hickson’s Book, by Robert Reilson and Yes, by Joan Rosier-Jones.

• Colm O’Hare

ONE OF the surprise bestsellers on the domestic book market in recent years was a poetry book — with a difference. Lifelines was a simple but inspired idea. Just ask lots of well-known people to name their favourite poem and to state why they like it. Put all the contributions together and, hey presto, you have a fascinating insight in to the minds of a wide variety of interesting personalities. What made it even more remarkable was the fact that it was compiled by the students of Wesley College in Dublin and edited by their teacher Niall MacMonagle.

Following the success of the first edition they’ve have now brought out Lifelines 2, with one-hundred and ninety five contributions from people like Dick Spring, Sean Hughes, Christopher Nolan, Julie Burchill, Niall Stokes and Vikram Seth to name but a few. The first book took nearly five years to compile but the response the second time around was much swifter, according to Niall MacMonagle.

“The kids had obviously written again to some of the people who didn’t respond for the first book and were surprised at how promptly they answered the second time around,” he says. “On one day alone in February, they got fourteen letters and the whole thing was put together in about eight months.”

He points out that there were some disappointments for the students when some of their heroes didn’t respond. “They wrote to more musicians and sports people than anyone else but got very few replies,” he says. “You might expect songwriters in particular to be interested in poetry but they obviously weren’t or else couldn’t be bothered. Sonia O’ Sullivan, bless her, did reply and sent signed photographs to them all but said she couldn’t choose a poem to save her life, which was sweet of her.

“They also got a lot of replies from people like Cardinal Basil Hume and Alan Ayckbourne, wishing them well but saying that they couldn’t contribute. On a sad note, not long before she died, Jackie Onassis wrote back saying she had to say no to these kinds of requests, otherwise she’d be inundated.”

Among MacMonagle’s own personal favourites is the contribution from Julie Burchill. “It was a brilliant letter,” he says. “She certainly gives good copy, as they say. But the one the students really jumped up and down about was from comedian Sean Hughes. He put in three poems, one by Brendan Kennelly about incest, another by Paul Durcan about the difference between having sex with someone and sleeping with someone and the eight sonnets by Seamus Heaney, which he said he reads four times a year to remind him to look after his mother!”

The second edition is expected to be even more successful than the first and he points out that it’s already gone into a second re-print.

“A compilation of both editions is coming out in America next year and it has already been issued in an abridged form in the UK by Penguin. They excluded some of the less well-known people, which I thought was a bit unfair. To us, it doesn’t really matter how well-known the person is. In fact, some of the less well-known personalities have written the most entertaining letters.”

Colm O'Hare looks at some of the current releases on offer from Irish publishers Town House and Country House

BOOKS AND book-tokens make ideal Christmas presents and this year the publishing houses and retailers are making an all-out effort to entice buyers to choose from the rapidly expanding number of Irish books on offer. And they’re succeeding too, as four of the top five bestsellers are Irish including Alice Taylor’s The Night Before Christmas, Joe O’Connor’s The Secret World Of The Irish Male, Brendan O’Carroll’s The Mammy and Jack Charlton’s World Cup Diary.

Town House and Country House are Irish publishers with a wide range of titles from fiction, historical, poetry, biography and literary criticism and they have recently published a dozen new books

Following the critically acclaimed bestsellers, That Childhood Country and Falling for a Dancer, former RTE newscaster and journalist Deirdre Purcell’s latest novel is Francey. A warm and moving story of a young man’s search for his father who he hasn’t seen since he was six years old, it blends a mix of romance, suspense and tragedy.

n Rose Doyle, another former journalist follows her successful debut novel Images with Kimbay, a compelling saga which chronicles the efforts of a young woman to transform her father’s once-thriving stud-farm into a success once more.

American crime writer Ann C. Fallon lived in Ireland for twelve years and brings her astute observations of Irish life to her rivetting couplet of crime novels under the banner of The James Fleming Mysteries.

n Ireland: Art Into History is a collection of essays written by a group of academics and scholars who have set out to challenge the approach of conventional historians to Irish History. With a stunning display of paintings, sketches, photographs, book illustrations and other contemporary visual images, they look at how visual evidence can enhance our understanding of Irish history. Edited by Brian P Kennedy, assistant director of the National Gallery and Raymond Gillespie, a senior lecturer in history at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, this provocative book will appeal to anyone with an interest in art, history, Ireland, education, social and local history.

Two hundred years ago the city of Dublin commissioned James Malton to paint a historical record of Dublin. The Office Of Public Works set about the same task when it organised a competition to find a suitable contemporary artist to repeat the exercise. The winner of that competition, James Horan – an illustrator, architect and painter – now has the fruits of his work available on Twenty-Five Views Of Dublin a collection of watercolours representing Dublin as it is in 1994. With accompanying text by Peter Somerville-Large and Benedict Kiely, some of Horan’s views mirror exactly those painted by his famous predecessor while some represent his own choice.

Lady G — Biography of The Honourable Lady Goulding, is an unusual biography by RTE journalist Jacqueline Hayden. Written with the co-operation of Lady Goulding, her sons and a wide variety of friends it provides a frank and provocative account of this fascinating woman’s life. Born into a privileged English family, she once acted as a message-carrier between King Edward VII and Wallis Simpson, the American divorcee who cost him the crown. She subsequently married Sir Basil Goulding and moved to Dublin where she founded the Central Remedial Clinic. Her fund-raising activities for the CRC became legendary and she managed to persuade personalities like Tony O’Reilly, Princes Grace and Jimmy Saville to help out. The book also tells of her conversion to Catholicism, her short spell with Fianna Fáil and her search for a new role. The book is enhanced by a selection from her own collection of personal photographs.

n Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Irish, is the first biography of Oscar Wilde that explores how his Irish background had a major influence on his life and work. Author Davis Coakley, who is Dean of the faculty of Health Sciences in Trinity College, makes valuable and relevant connections between Wilde’s early life in Ireland and his later work like The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Ballad Of Reading Gaol, where his Irishness shines through consistently.

The RTE television health series Check Up has already produced the best-selling Check Up Guide to Good Health and following it’s success Check Up Children, has now been published. Twenty Irish medical experts give valuable advice and information on many of the common medical conditions of childhood as well as practical advice on how parents can help their children to maintain good health.

Frank Mitchell has earned a reputation for his scholarship in a vast range of natural sciences including geology, geography, botany, archaeology and human history. In his new book Where Has Ireland Come From? he hops aboard a magic carpet which whisks him back in time to begin a mammoth geological tour of Ireland. He gives a succinct overview of the origins and development of the island of Ireland, from 1700 million years ago to the present day. Whew!

FOOTBALL FATIGUE

The glut of soccer books on the market has led to disappointing sales for most. LIAM FAY, barely suppressing a smirk, reports.

AS THE season of crap TV specials draws near, the battle among publishers for a maximum share of the lucrative Christmas books market intensifies. What has already become apparent, however, is that those who expected the World Cup to be the publishing goose that would lay a golden egg have found themselves with something of a turkey on their hands.

There are, at the last count, over a half dozen newly-published books about the Irish football squad and their big adventure. These range from the “in-their-own-words” treatises of players like Andy Townsend and Paul McGrath, through straight-forward hagiographies like The Legend Of Jack Charlton by Tom Humphries to Paul Rowan’s controversial The Team That Jack Built. There are also a couple of volumes featuring fans’ reminiscences of various kinds, and, of course, the inevitable Jack Charlton’s American World Cup Diary.

A quick survey of the major Dublin bookstores reveals that this plethora of USA ’94 related tomes is just not selling in the quantities that the industry believed it would. “There are so many different books that very few days go by without us selling at least one or two,” said a spokesperson for Waterstones, echoing the sentiments of all the retailers we spoke to. “But there’s definitely no stampede. The novelty seems to have worn off for a lot of people. The demand for these books is certainly not what some people may have thought it would be, even coming up to Christmas.”

FOOTBALL BANDWAGON

None of the stores was prepared to identify any one particular title that was dying on its feet. However, the consensus seems to be that the only books which are selling in appreciable numbers as Jack Charlton’s American World Cup Diary and The Team That Jack Built.

“Exact sales figures are difficult to specify but, as of now, there are 43,000 copies of Jack Charlton’s American World Cup Diary in circulation, that’s including stocks in the shops,” say the book’s publishers, Gill & MacMillan. “It has been repeating steadily and the fact that Jack himself has done a number of signings has given it a good boost. The book he did with us after the European Championships sold 50,000 here and about 6,000 in the UK. We still have another 7,000 of the current book in stock. In the past, we might have been a little worried to have only that much left this close to Christmas but, this time round, we think that we have more than enough.”

Mainstream Publishers in Edinburgh, the people who annoyed Jack Charlton so much by publishing Paul Rowan’s The Team That Jack Built, are pleased with the sales so far but accept that they still have a long way to go to reach the same ballpark as that occupied by the Gill & MacMillan book.

“The controversy has obviously helped a great deal,” insists a spokeswoman for Mainstream. “There are a total of 10,000 copies in circulation and we have a further 2,000 ourselves. But book selling is a sale or return business. We don’t yet know how many copies will ultimately be sent back to us at the end of the day.”

All the retailers we spoke to agreed on one thing. Come the new year, the shelves of every remaindered store in the country are going to be groaning beneath the weight of cut-price World Cup books. “I don’t think you’ll see so many publishers jumping on the Irish football bandwagon in the future,” concluded one store representative. “I think that bubble has finally burst.”

• Liam Fay