Books

The Emerald Evertonian: The Life and Times of Peter Farrell by Rob Sawyer

Like his modern-day compatriot Séamus Coleman, Farrell is revered as one of Ireland and Everton’s greatest captains – leader of character, courage and sportsmanship through testing times. Rob Sawyer charts Farrell’s journey from junior football in Dalkey to silverware with Shamrock Rovers and on to post-war England with Everton. Drawing on meticulous research and previously unseen sources, Sawyer also explores Farrell’s later life in management and his dignified 25-year struggle with dementia, sustained by the devotion of his family and community. This is a compelling portrait of a remarkable footballer and gentleman, and a vivid window into the game during a transformative era.

Rob Sawyer is a founding member of Toffeeopolis and author of several Everton-related books. His biography of TG Jones was shortlisted in the 2018 Sports Book of the Year awards.

The Glovesmen of Goodison: A History of Everton’s Goalkeepers

Paul Owens

Explore the careers of every goalkeeper who has stood between the sticks for Merseyside giants Everton FC, and get exclusive insight from the keepers themselves.

Meticulously researched, this compelling book is brimming with fascinating stories of the club’s leading last lines of defence, including:

With chapters covering every period in the club’s rich goalkeeping past, this book is a must-read for Evertonians and goalkeeping aficionados everywhere.

Broken Dreams: Everton, The War and Goodison’s Lost Generation

Rob Sawyer

In the late summer of 1939, Everton Football Club had the world at their feet. After a 1938/39 season that saw them claim the League Championship title, they seemed poised to become an enduring dynasty in English football. But the invasion of Poland by Germany, just eight days into the 1939/40 season, suspended the dreams and ambitions of a team that looked set to dominate the decade.

Rob Sawyer’s excellent book takes you on a thrilling journey through the most tumultuous era in the club’s history. Packed with intricate details, player profiles, and behind-the-scenes anecdotes, this book pays homage to the men who could have been legends in an era that could have been iconic.

The Forgotten Champions – 1986/87: Everton’s Last Title

Paul McParlan

The Forgotten Champions vividly recounts Everton’s remarkable 1986/87 title win, a feat that tested Howard Kendall’s managerial skills to the limit. Lifelong Everton fan and experienced football writer Paul McParlan draws on personal recollections, extensive research and interviews with key team members – Alan Harper, Paul Power and captain Kevin Ratcliffe – to recreate that dramatic season.

Against all odds, an injury-ravaged Everton side deprived of so many key players for large chunks of the campaign were crowned league champions for the ninth time. It was a magnificent achievement. To date, it is the club’s last title. With his unrivalled knowledge of 1986/87, Paul brings that incredible season to life in all its glory in this fascinating, page-turning account.

Kendall’s Glory Years by Steve Zocek

Former Everton players and backroom staff give you the inside track on Howard Kendall’s illustrious first spell in charge of the Toffees and how he became the most successful manager in the club’s long history. Charting the homecoming of one of Everton’s greatest midfielders, to manage the club and bring back the glory years of a side desperate for silverware.

Evertonians who remember that special era will be fascinated to go behind the scenes, while younger supporters will enjoy reading about the period when their team dominated, not just the domestic game but European football as well, and the heights they could have reached had it not been for Heysel.

This is Everton FC at their brilliant best.

A Grand Old Team To Report: 45 Years Of Following Everton Football Club by David Prentice

David Prentice was the Sport Editor of the Liverpool Echo, the city’s famous newspaper. His fascinating book charts almost half a century of Everton Football Club’s history – from a unique insider. It is a fan-fare and a news report. A travelogue and a social comment – and a poignant reflection of how football and journalism have changed forever.

Whether it’s covering pre-season tours or getting behind dressing room doors, few people know Everton Football Club like David Prentice. As a trusted journalist for the Liverpool Echo since the 1980s, he had daily visits to the training ground, interviewed players, enjoyed unrivalled access to the manager’s office and found out what was really happening on the blue half of Merseyside.

A Grand Old Team To Report is a unique collection of Everton memories that tell the stories behind the stories.

The Prince of Centre-Halves: The Life of Tommy TG Jones by Rob Sawyer

Shortlisted in the Sports Book Awards 2018 Best Biography of the Year

Everton’s elegant Welsh international centre half T. G. Jones, was dubbed The Prince of Centre-Halves by his adoring fans. A forerunner of football immortals like Bobby Moore and Franz Beckenbauer, he was, according to Dixie Dean, ‘the best all-round player’ he had ever seen. Jones left his own indelible mark on British football in the 1930s and 1940s. With a blend of defensive brilliance, skill and playmaking ability, his regal style won him admirers across the land. To his fans he truly was ‘The Uncrowned Prince of Wales.’

Rob Sawyer, uncovers the true story of this enigmatic football legend. Utilising a mixture of archive material and interviews with those who knew Jones and saw him play, Sawyer paints a compelling picture of a brilliant footballer and outspoken and complicated man. Rebel, pioneer and football genius this is the definitive story of one of the game’s forgotten heroes.

Blue Dragon: The Roy Vernon Story by Rob Sawyer and David France

Roy Vernon was one of the most deadly strikers in English football’s golden era. His goals helped take Wales to the World Cup finals, Blackburn Rovers to promotion to the First Division and Everton to league championship glory. Later in his career, at Stoke City, he was part of Tony Waddington’s resurgent 1960s team. But Vernon was more than just a great player. He was a maverick, a smoker and a joker, who defied his managers off the pitch and delighted them on it. Now, 50 years after his retirement from a game he gave so much to, award-nominated author Rob Sawyer and acclaimed Everton historian David France have told his story in full for the first time.

Drawing upon Vernon’s own unpublished memoir, scores of interviews with friends, family, teammates and opponents, the authors produce a vivid portrait of a man who wowed millions of fans and terrorised hundreds of opponents.

Money Can’t Buy Us Love: Everton in the 1960s by Gavin Buckland (now in paperback)

The first part of Gavin Buckland’s epic trilogy chronicling John Moores’ three-decade ownership of Everton is now available in paperback. When Moores took control in 1960, he set in motion a chain of events that still affects English football today. This forensic study examines how Moores and Harry Catterick took the ‘Mersey Millionaires’ to the summit of the game, against the backdrop of the 1960s’ cultural revolution. Gavin delves into the archives to provide definitive accounts of the doping allegations of 1962/63, the 1964 match-fixing scandal that ended Tony Kay’s career, and the shock sale of Alan Ball. As Toffeeweb notes, this is “a go to reference tome for scholars of the School of Science.”

Boys from the Blue Stuff: Everton’s Rise to 1980s Glory by Gavin Buckland

In May 1985 Everton were the best team in Europe, having romped to the First Division title and lifted the European Cup Winners’ Cup in thrilling style.

That twin triumph was the culmination of a long and occasionally treacherous journey that started with the departure of Harry Catterick twelve years earlier. Set in the wider cultural and economic context of the time, Boys from the Blue Stuff tells the story of that passage.

Expertly researched and brilliantly written, Boys from the Blue Stuff is the definitive account of an era in which Everton touched the extremes of triumph and despair, leaving an indelible mark on the club’s illustrious history.

The End: From Glory to a Whole New Ball Game: Everton 1985-1994 by Gavin Buckland

In May 1994, Everton Football Club found themselves on the brink of disaster – an outcome no one could have imagined just a few years earlier. More than three decades after John Moores set out to make Everton the dominant force in English football, the club faced the grim prospect of relegation in the final match of the 1993/94 season against Wimbledon. Once known as the ‘Mersey Millionaires,’ Everton had fallen to ‘Mersey Mediocrities.’ This downfall was unthinkable just nine years earlier, when Howard Kendall had led the club to the League Championship and European supremacy.

Gavin Buckland’s final book on the Moores era at Everton, is the authoritative and vivid telling of footballing aristocracy falling on hard times. Offering rich detail and insight, The End is a must-read for any football fan or historian of the modern game.

Harry Catterick: The Untold Story of a Football Great by Rob Sawyer

As the manager of Sheffield Wednesday and Everton, Harry Catterick amassed more top flight points in the 1960s than all his rivals, finishing outside the top 6 on only one occasion. Yet, unfairly, he stands in the shadows of contemporaries such as Bill Shankly, Don Revie and Brian Clough in the public consciousness.

Following extensive research, including being given unique access to the Catterick family’s documents and photographs, Rob Sawyer has recounted the life of this football great for the very first time. It is a story taking in a working class childhood in County Durham, adolescence in Stockport, a playing career stymied by misfortune, the struggles of a lower league managerial apprenticeship, heady times of top-flight success, managerial downfall and ill-health, contentment in semi-retirement and an untimely early passing – fittingly in the place he is most closely associated with.

Born Not Manufactured by Ken Rogers

In 45 years of covering football through 23 Merseyside managers, journalist Ken Rogers had an access all areas pass that is no longer possible. The former Liverpool Echo Sport Editor spent almost every day at Bellefield, travelled with the team and secured major exclusives. ‘Evertonians: Born Not Manufactured’ will inspire and surprise fans.

Ken Rogers has written thirteen football books, including Everton’s Goodison Glory the official centenary history; Everton Greats; Everton s Z-Stars. He was also the driving force behind Dixie Dean Uncut, the story of Everton FC s greatest player.

Ken, now the chairman of The Everton FC Heritage Society, was also managing director of specialist Trinity Mirror football publishing unit Sport Media. He has won many awards for his work and is a former Northern Sports Journalist of the Year.

NB – now out of print, but copies can be had from the Everton FC Heritage Society match venue (rear of The Bluehouse, facing the Hill Dickinson Stadium). Copies can also be sourced online.

The Fallen of Everton by Mike Royden / Peter Jones

A great deal of research has been carried out by a number of members since the founding of the society, into players on Everton FC books who fell in both wars. This research has also been extended to include the Everton clubs of Chile and New Zealand.

A booklet was produced to include a roll of honour for all three clubs, with brief biographies of the players. Copies are no longer available, but a digital PDF can be downloaded here.

Anfield Cemetery Booklet by Jamie Yates

A booklet has been produced by Jamie Yates of the Society, with support from Tony Onslow and Rob Sawyer, detailing the known staff and players of Everton Football Club who have been laid to rest in Anfield Cemetery.
A digital PDF is available for free downloaded here.

Latest version: Booklet updated August 2023