Football book

Yesterday evening I braved the storms to meet Josh Lacey at Al's Bar in Exmouth Market (good choice of wheat beers) for the first time. I've been corresponding with Josh for awhile now, since I first learnt he was writing a biography of Charles Miller, the Englishman who introduced football in Brazil at the end of the nineteenth century.

Josh seemed quiet, although it may have had something to do with me not shutting up. Although his focus is on Miller and the British in Sao Paulo, I arranged to meet him and lend some books which I have around the flat: on the English in Rio Grande do Sul, an essay on football in Rio and one about the first football club in the country, Sport Club Rio Grande. I wrote about the club back in February, which grabbed Josh's attention. The fact that he's coming to the end of writing it probably means he borrowed them more out of politeness than anything else.

The Charles Miller biography should be out sometime next year, Josh assures me, although I haven't yet worked out where to order an advance copy. But if his prose is as insightful as the reviews he writes for the Guardian, then the wait will be worth it.