Book

Girls With Balls: The Secret History of Women's Football

Name: Girls With Balls: The Secret History of Women's Football
Author: Tim Tate

Tim Tate

2015

Tim Tate · 2015 · United Kingdom

Recovers the players, crowds and press attention surrounding women's football before its abrupt institutional suppression.

Makes the scale of women's pre-ban popularity legible to general readers through lively archival storytelling.

The Historian

This film excavates a forgotten era in British sport, unearthing the thrill of women's football from 1880s England to the mid-20th century. By revisiting newspaper clippings and photographs, it reveals the mass appeal and media frenzy surrounding female players like Lilian Shenton and Lily Burfoot, challenging the myth that women's football was always a niche pursuit.

The Psychologist

This documentary excavates a marginalized chapter in British history, revealing the fervent passion of female footballers who attracted thousands of spectators and enthusiastic press coverage. The film taps into desires for community, recognition, and self-expression, illuminating how women's participation was abruptly erased from public life.

The Sceptic

The narrative relies heavily on existing accounts and may downplay the complexities of female experience during this period. The archive itself is limited by the biases of its creators, and Tate's curation may be too simplistic or romanticized, glossing over the ways in which women's football was also subject to patriarchal restrictions and social norms.

These are interpretations written in three voices, not quotations from any individual.

Language: English
Length: 304 pp
Subject: Women's football in Britain before the FA ban
Region: Europe
Tone: Serious
Difficulty: Newcomer

John Blake Publishing; bookstores and secondhand sellers

Print editions are often easier to locate secondhand.

Sourceabebooks.co.uk

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