You can’t beat a good travel diary and you certainly can”t beat one that is centered around football. Tim Hartley’s latest offering, Kicking Off in North Korea: Football and Friendships in Foreign Lands, is one of the most diverse we’ve seen. You’ll be taken on an epic journey that includes political hotspots, football landmarks, and places that are best labelled as the unknown.
Hartley travels to Lebanon, Jerusalem, Yugoslavia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kenya, Norway, North Korea, Ukraine, Bosnia, Brazil, and everywhere in between. Some are dangerous locales; others are tourist attractions. He sees a little bit of everything: reindeer, ultras, political protests, orphanages, and favelas to name just a few.
One thing is for certain: he covers a lot of ground in a 15-year span. Hartley’s a globetrotting author to say the least, the Welsh version of Anthony Bourdain. This book is all about a shared love of the beautiful game. Simply put, it always comes back to the football.
And Hartley is a football expert in addition to being an experienced writer and journalist. On the football side, he is the chair of the Cardiff City Supporters Trust. He has worked for the BBC for 17+ years and is a regular contributor for radio, television, newspapers, and magazines.
This text is easily one of the most entertaining reads of 2016, one that you’ll certainly want to pick up. Ylolfa continues to put out great content from great authors and this is yet another world-class piece of literature. This book appeals to just about everyone, from football supporters to travel addicts to anyone that loves a good story.
