Books & Poetry

Part of the novel’s power comes from its simplicity, despite being written in the first and second person, in present tense and flashback. ‘“GB84” had six different narrators and took place over a year, and I wanted to write something more direct. My books were getting complicated and I wanted to do something rougher, with a faster pace. At the same time, I find 1974 fascinating [his first book was called ‘1974’]. I was seven and that seems to be the year when I first remember things with my own memory rather than as people have told me. I remember the whole Clough thing. It was a real mystery in Yorkshire. Why was he sacked? Why did he take the job? What was going on? But it was about the place as well as the team.’ Feature continues

The first game Peace went to (aged seven, of course), was Clough’s first for Leeds, a friendly against Huddersfield. ‘I’ve still got the programme. It was a bright sunny day and I can remember Clough coming off the coach and going into the ground. I have a fascination for Leeds. There’s something about them. Growing up in West Yorkshire in the 1970s they were such a dominant presence. Even if you weren’t a fan you could list the team. They had a strong hold on the place, and they still do.’

Leeds are a Yorkshire club, rather than a city club, no?

‘Absolutely. They have the white rose as their crest and they typify that Yorkshire us-against-them attitude. Back in the ’70s we had the Yorkshire Republican Army who sprayed YRA over everything, and there was this strong sense of identity. And it doesn’t seem to have diminished, that sense of a place apart. It goes back to William the Conqueror and the House of York and there are great historical reasons for it, but somehow the football club does typify something unique about Yorkshire.’Peace’s inspiration also came from more recent northern mythology.‘The books that really influenced me when growing up were “This Sporting Life” and “Room At The Top”. I don’t want to bang on like a disaffected, working-class northerner but they were the key books, about the place I grew up and the people I knew. “This Sporting Life” was the only book I could think of that’s in this style. Clough was a tremendous fan of these books and he does seem to me like a character who has stepped out of those pages.'

Peace was writing ‘The Damned Utd’ when Clough died last year. ‘I wrote the book intending him to be alive to read it,’ he says. ‘So when he died it was strange. The outpourings of romanticism were a bit daft, but he’s a fascinating character. It’s how I felt about Arthur Scargill. He draws you to him. Some people assume I wrote it because I’m a big fan of the man, but I’m not sure I am. I feel quite ambiguous about him.’The book concludes with Clough in such a state of self-destruction it’s scarcely imaginable that he would go on to his greatest success at Forest – so much so that Peace was tempted to write a sequel. Instead, he has since written the first of a trilogy set in post-war Tokyo during the American occupation. Another departure! ‘I needed to write something that wasn’t set in Yorkshire. I needed to prove to myself that I could do something different.’

But not completely different. ‘Well, there’s this serial killer on the loose…’

‘The Damn Utd’ is out now from Faber.