Saturday 23 February 2019

Britain is no longer a country for and says "Goodbye" to Michael Hardcastle, Uncrowned King of Children's Sporting fiction

It is unlikely that Michael's passing, at the age of 85, will be recorded in the obituary pages of the either the 'Times', 'Telegraph' or 'Guardian', yet for almost 40 years, in the last century, his sporting stories captivated the imaginations of successive generations of thousands of boys and girls in Britain.

He was born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire in 1933, at a time when the town's prosperity still depended on its production of woollen textiles along with the chemical and engineering industries that had grown up in support their manufacture. In addition, the town was the home to rugby league team, 'Huddersfield Giants' and Premier League football team 'Huddersfield Town A.F.C'.

Young Michael attended Birkby Junior School and in 1940 he passed his 11+ exam and gained a gained a place at King James Grammar School for Boys, Almonbury. Then from the age of 11, a succession of serious illnesses - diphtheria, scarlet fever and rheumatic fever blighted his development. Diphtheria 
immunisation, introduced by Churchill's Second World War Government in 1942, came too late for Michael. It was a disease which before vaccination killed 3,500 children a year in Britain and on that basis Michael was lucky to escape with his life.

Michael's love of fiction was partly explained by the fact that he was, in his words "too fragile" to take part in school sport, apart from table tennis and was confined to the safety of the school library where he read the W.E.John stories of the his First World War fight ace, 'Biggles' and he "discovered a larger landscape" when he graduated to the works of Dickens and in particular, 'Great Expectations.' He was also encouraged to enjoy stories by his English teacher, Herbert 'Tich' Blackburn who was "a bit pedantic, but loved teaching" and when learning that Michael had researched and composed an essay on 'Italy' without cribbing, predicted that he's have a future in journalism.

Michael later said : "I think I became a writer because, as a child, I was a voracious reader of fiction, being regarded as too fragile to participate in physical contact sports. So I read everything that attracted me but was disappointed to find that there was no sports fiction to make up for my lack of opportunity to play ordinary games."

When he was in the sixth form he edited the school's Almonburian Magazine and having been introduced to horse racing by Tom Harper, the school caretaker, recalled laying bets to other pupils and listening to the 1951 Derby and Arctic Prince win the race on the radio in Tom's bookstore.

Michael's ill health meant that he was forced to repeat a total of three years at school and consequently he was 21 years old when he left the sixth form in 1951 and signed on for five years service in the Royal Army Education Corps. He immediately found himself teaching men in the ranks, who had joined the Army with a basic 1940s education, but needed the maths, English and map reading in order to get a substantive rank.

His overseas Army postings took him to Kenya and Mauritius and when he left, at the age of 26 in 1956, he applied for and gained the post of reporter on the 'Huddersfield Examiner' where he counted one of his successes, his interview with the American bass baritone concert artist, Paul Robeson on his last visit to Britain in 1959.

Having served his apprenticeship in journalism at the Examiner Michael moved to the 'Bristol Evening Post' in 1959 as a 'Diarist' and 'Literary Editor' and then at the age of 35, moved north to take up the position of 'Chief Feature Writer' at the Liverpool Daily Post in 1965.

A year later he wrote his first piece of fiction - 'Soccer is Also a Game', to coincide with the the 1966 FIFA World Cup. Michael's retired England striker, Andy Blair, recently moved to the town of Scorton, watches the local team struggle in a Second Division match and after the game he is approached by club chairman Herbert Graydon who convinces him to come out of retirement and play for the Rovers. The story progresses : eighteen-year-old son Bobbie, introduced into team, plays well but becomes mixed up with local match-fixers and experiences difficulties in relationship with girlfriend, Adrienne. Andy, forced to take matters into his own hands, tackles the match-fixers and having retrieved his son, the Blairs reunited, can concentrate on getting the Rovers' promotion to the First Division.

In the years that followed, his was a simple formula : he wanted to write the kind of book he would have liked as a child and in the early days Michael's stories were not exclusively about sport. The following year saw the publication of Michael's 'Redcap' by the The Children's Press. It was a story which involved the search for buried treasure in the Far East by British Military Police and in its composition he no doubt drew on his experience in the Army in Mauritius and his 'Island Magic' in 1973, also saw him return to the Indian Ocean.

It was in 1967, that he took the plunge and resigned from the Daily Post and tried his hand at earning a living from his writing and over the next 34 years he successfully produced  over 140 books of fiction devoted mainly, but not exclusively, to football and found that although he didn't have a smash hit, collectively they sold in enough numbers to generate a comfortable income.

His background in journalism served him well : He had a quota of five hundred to a thousand words a day and rarely had to rewrite. His formula was simple, based on : how to begin - have action, excite the imagination, generate a page-turning effect; introduce three or four main characters with their hobbies and ambition; decide on the ending - successful or unsuccessful, happy or unhappy, left with a question mark; introduce one name from Huddersfield in each book. He generally worked a book on for three or four months and then got down to the final draught on his trusty typewriter.

With this in mind, his 'The Chasing Game', in 1968, had steeplechase jockey, Sean Massie, discovering that one jockey is prepared to fall deliberately, to lose a race on the orders of the bad guys. In his determination to stop the criminals, Sean found himself plunging in a desperate situation that could not only ruin his career but could cost him his life. He found his fate was allied to the plight of girlfriend, Meryl, and the fortunes of a brilliant horse called 'Poor Boy'.

The books tumbled out, one or two a year to begin with, but by 1970 he was up to six, 1971 seven, things slowed down to two in 1972 but by 1974 he was up to seven again when 'Away from Home' was followed by 'Free Kick', 'The Demon Bowler', 'The Big One', 'The Chases', 'On the Run' and 'Heading for Goal'. In addition. up to 1975 he also published eight of his titles under the pseudonym, 'David Clark'. He also found a market for his horse riding books like 'Von der Schulbank in dem Sattel' in Germany.

Alan Edwin Day, the Principal Lecturer at Leeds Polytechnic School of Librarianship and an expert on Biggles wrote in 'Twentieth-Century Children's Writers' : 'If the rewards of sports fiction are tempting, the pitfalls awaiting authors who venture into this specialised field can be daunting. One false line of dialogue, one error in either description or situation, and the vital effect of the total reality is irretrievably lost. Hardcastle triumphantly surmounts these difficulties. His stories are authentic and convincing to the last detail.'

Over the years, Michael worked with a number of publishers : Heinemann, Metuen, Benn, Blackie and occasionally Faber and a succession of illustrators. The publication of 'Stikers Revenge' in 2001 drew the praise : 'Michael Hardcastle is the Mr Big of the sporting novel' from the Independent.

Michael took the opportunity, between writing, to visit schools and colleges all over Britain to encourage reading and writing. Once again, his career in journalism set him in good stead for talking to children which he did without either patronising or talking down to them. In 1987 he was back at his old school, King James, to talk about the techniques of writing children's books. The following year, in recognition of his 'Services to Children’s Literature', he was appointed MBE.

In an interview at the age of  77, Michael reflected :
                                          
                                        'I think I wrote too many football books." 

Not so. His was a life well spent and a talent placed at the service of that most important of things : the imagination of children. 

In the 1960s, in his thirties he gave them :

* Soccer Is Also a Game
* Redcap
* Shoot on Sight
* Aim for the Flag
* The Chasing Game
* Goal
* Dive to Danger
* Shilling a Mile

1970s, in his forties :

* Stop That Car!
* Reds and Blues
* The Hidden Enemy
* Strike!
* Smashing!
* Don't Tell Me What to Do
* Come and Get Me
* Live in the Sky
* Shelter
* A Load of Trouble
* Blood Money
* It Wasn't Me
* In the Net
* Playing Ball
* Goals in the Air
* Island Magic
* United!
* Away from Home
* Free Kick
* The Demon Bowler
* The Big One
* The Chase
* On the Run
* Heading for Goal
* Contact series : Last Across, The Match, Dead of Night, Road
   Race, A Hard Man, Catch, Day in the Country, The Long Drop 
* Flare Up
* Get Lost
* Money for Sale
* Life Underground
* Mark Fox series : The First Goal, Breakaway, On the Ball,
   Shooting Star, Goal in Europe, Kick Off, Attack! 
* Where the Action Is
* The Saturday Horse
* First Contact series :Go and Find Him, River of Danger, The
Great Bed Race, Night Raid 
* Strong Arm
* Fire on the Sea
* Holiday House
* Crash Car
* Soccer Special
* Top of the League
* The Reporters : Top Soccer, Top Fishing, Top Speed

and as David Clark : 

* Splash
* Run
* Top Spin
* Grab
* Winner
* Volley
* Roll Up

The 1980s, in his 50s  : 

* The Switch Horse
* Go for Goal
* Racing Bike
* Snakerun
* Hot Wheels
* Behind the Goal
* Half a Team
* Roar to Victory
* Fast from the Gate
* Caught Out
* Hooked! 
* The Team That Wouldn't Give In
* Double Holiday
* Winning Rider
* Tiger of the Track
* The Shooters
* James and the TV Star
* No Defence
* One Kick
* Snookered!
* Mascot
* Quake
* The Rival Games
* The Magic Party
* Kickback
* The Green Machine

The 1990s in his 60s :

  * Penalty
  * Walking the Goldfish
  * Joanna's Goal
  * Lucky Break
  * Mark England's Cap
  * Advantage Miss Jackson
  * James and the House of Fun
  * Second Chance
  * The Away Team
  * Own Goal
  * Dog Bites Goalie 
  * One Good Horse
  * Racing to Win
  * Soccer Star
  * Shooting Boots
  * You Won't Catch Me
  * Soccer Captain
  * Netball Shooters
  * Please Come Home
  * Winning Goal
  * Carole's Camel
 * Puzzle
 * The Fastest Bowler in the World
 * Matthew's Goals

In the 2000s in his 70s : 

 * The Most Dangerous Score
 * The Striker's Revenge
 * Soccer Star
 * Archie's Amazing Game 2006.



Hit It! in 2006 at the age of 76

2 comments:

  1. I loved reading Michael Hardcastle's football books as a child. They remain the only football novels I have enjoyed, as it is a very difficult subject to write about well. I am sure many others felt the same way. May he rest in peace.

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  2. It took me ages to find out who wrote these books that I enjoyed so much in the 1980s. Rest in peace, Mr Hardcastle. So much joy you gave this (once) young man!

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