Life Sentence - Mark Hodkinson

The best fan's perspective I've ever read, 5 Jan 2003

I'm an ardent Sheffield Wednesday supporter, but after reading this book, I'll be keeping an eye on Rochdale's results with keen interest. I'd read Mark Hodkinson's book on Barnsley and rated it as insightful and intriguing, but because Hodkinson is a lifelong Rochdale fan, this offering is even better and I'd challenge any reader not to develop a softspot for the club after reading it. Rochdale's perennial lack of success makes for a poignant read, and I can empathise with Mark's emotions at every turn. I've read most of the football books published over the past ten years, but cannot recall a better one than this, and my one minor criticism would be that the letters from fellow Rochdale fans that he publishes would have been better interspersed throughout the text rather than being included en bloc. Still, if you have any kind of interest in football, you must get hold of this book.

Cracking read, 13 Aug 2002

Reviewer: A reader
What a great book - funny and sad by turn - definitely the best football book I have read

A must for all true football supporters., 8 April 2002

Reviewer: A reader
What an absolutely fantastic read! A real football supporter writing about the club he loves with wit, passion and honesty.
This is the best football book I have ever read, and makes Fever Pitch look pathetic in comparison.
I even enjoyed the section devoted to slagging off my team, Burnley.
The boy Hodkinson done good.

I was as addicted to this book as the author is to Rochdale., 17 Feb 2002

Reviewer: A reader
'Life Sentence' is ostensibly about one man's "low-level love affair" with Rochdale FC - the country's most unsuccessful football club.

The book follows the 2000/2001 season which saw Rochdale flirt with automatic promotion, self-destruct, pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and finally miss out on a play-off place on the last day of the season.

There's more to it than that, however - it's not just for Rochdale fans (I am not a fan of 'The Dale' myself - although I must say that this book has given me a certain soft spot for them). Any football fan can relate to the highs and lows described in the pages of 'Life Sentence', especially those fans of the less financially-fortunate, lower division clubs.

In fact, the book will also appeal to readers who are not specifically football fans, for he writes of 'hope and heartache, anguish and agony'. He is describing not only what it means to be a Rochdale fan, not only what it means to have an obsession, but what it means to be human.

Mark Hodkinson's contemplations are endearing, thought-provoking, amusing. And considering the 'plot' of the book, there is a dramatic irony in some of the author's more hopeful passages of near-Shakespearean tragedy proportions!
It's a pretty gripping read too - I was as addicted to this book as the author is to Rochdale!

a lovely read, 19 Dec 2001

Since Fever Pitch there have been numerous books detailing a football season from the fan's perspective, but none are probably quite as acutely observed as this
the author is a journalist in "real life" and these columns had appeared in the Times, so the writing is good and very much to the point making for a breezy read
Many of the neat assumptions of the football armchair audience are neatly turned on their head (familys at football and "second teams" being examples) and there are many excellent anecdotes which vary from the funny to the quite strange
A fine read