A Fan For All Seasons by Jon Harvey was published by Yellow Jersey on 3 August 2023.
Jon kindly answered a few of my questions.
1. Tell us a little about A Fan For All Seasons.
It's my debut non-fiction book, and in essence it's a memoir about sport, grief and my brother Dan, who sadly passed away in 2015. He was a huge sports fan and I inherited his season ticket at Crystal Palace FC (some might say a fate worse than death). As a result, I became his eyes and ears at Selhurst Park for the 2015/16 season, which saw the Eagles flirt with relegation before soaring into an FA Cup Final, where they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in a match most famous for Alan Pardew's dad dancing. After that, I was conflicted about what to do next. Initially I thought about keeping hold of Dan's seat, as he'd held it for over 25 years to let it go felt like sacrilege. But then I thought that to keep going to Palace would be living his life, not mine. So I hit upon an alternative: maybe I could try and see as many of our favourite sports events in a single year as possible, to build the ultimate season ticket and create a unique memorial to my brother. The book tells this story, filled with all the weird and wonderful things I saw on my travels, from Wimbledon tennis to Wimbledon greyhounds, and even from rugby to Rubik's Cubes. It's also an attempt to wrestle with grief through humour and a love letter to sport, which I found to be a wonderful coping mechanism. In fact, in the course of writing the book I realised just how astonishing sport is: it's drama without a script, war without death, and for millions if not billions of people around the world, it has the power of a modern religion. I've come to believe sport is one of our great inventions.
2. What inspired the book?
The engine driving it is the burning love of sport that Dan and I shared for as long as I knew him. We used to watch anything together, from Kabaddi highlights on Channel 4 to the Field Gun Competition at the Royal Tournament. The idea of not being able to watch sport with him anymore was initially impossible for me to compute, and it magnified the rawness of his absence. Then I found I was able to counter the pain - just a bit - by throwing myself into sport more deeply than I ever had before. I discovered that by celebrating Dan's passions, in a small way he was still with me. I didn't set out to write a book about it; originally I just went on the journey for its own sake. But as the year unfolded, my travels were so unexpected and revelatory that they ended up turning into a full story. From there I hoped I could create a memoir that might serve as an accessible and funny guide to modern grief, seen through the lens of sport.
3. Was there anything about the process of travelling to the various events and reflecting on them that you didn't expect? What did you take away from the experience and of writing the book?
I was struck by how similar all sports are, in a wonderful way. It doesn't matter whether you're watching Ian Poulter lining up a putt at The Open, or Feliks Zemdeg solving a Rubik's Cube in under five seconds, the effort and skill involved in professional sport is miraculous, as is the wonder and thrill that it infuses in a watching crowd. Zooming out, one of the most awe-inspiring visits I took was to ancient Olympia in Greece, where I jogged a lap of the original running track which has a strong claim to being the birthplace of sport as we know it. What's more, the Greeks originally invented sport as something to do at funerals, so from the get-go it's a pastime that has gone hand in hand with death. The idea that sport has been a part of civilisation for thousands of years helped me feel that my journey was a natural thing to do. Stephen Fry had it right when he said that 'Sport is unimportant, but it's the most important unimportant thing in the world'.
Writing the book was cathartic and therapeutic, and it helped me connect with Dan's memory all over again. It was very difficult at certain points to navigate the emotions that it stirred up, and I confess it's impossible to fully capture a loved one's character in words - even 250 pages' worth. Even so, I've been touched by readers telling me they feel like they've got to know Dan through the story, and that it's a funny exploration of grief. Lacing the book with humour was really important to me, and not just as a coping mechanism. As well as sport, comedy was crucial to what made Dan tick (he was a Palace fan, after all), and he'd have wanted me to see the funny side. I think that's good advice for us all.
4. Is there anything about the process of publishing a book that surprised you?
Having worked a lot in television and radio, which are very collaborative media, I was struck by how few people can be involved in publishing a book, and how as a result, who your editor is can make a huge difference. I was very lucky to work with Joe Pickering at Vintage, who was an invaluable support and who really 'got' the book from day one. As if I didn't know how lucky I was to have him, at one stage during the writing period Joe went on paternity leave, and I was given a temporary freelance editor instead, who let's just say had a very different sensibility. When Joe returned, I felt like Gotham feels when Batman comes back in 'The Dark Knight Rises'. So here's to all the great editors out there. They're the unsung heroes in the book world.
One other thing I've noticed, since publication, is just how unlevel the playing field is in UK bookshops. I knew things were skewed but it's astonishing how weighted things are towards a tiny minority of celebrity authors, and to a small number of titles which the major publishers and booksellers have decided to push, such that they fill shoppers' eyeballs from September through to Christmas. (A few examples will no doubt have already come to mind as you read this - so powerful is the marketing). This means it's very hard for new books to get noticed if they're written by authors who don't already have a big profile. The various awards shortlists can help lift up smaller titles, but it's an uphill battle.
5. What do you do when you aren't writing?
Writing is an increasingly large fraction of my work, although not just books: I write scripts for radio, TV, print media and awards shows. Aside from that, I work part-time as a comedy producer in TV/radio, with my latest project being a new Radio 4 entertainment series called 'The Ultimate Choice' starring Steph McGovern, which I co-created with Joseph Morpurgo. I'm also a comedy performer, both as myself and perhaps more famously as the alter-ego of the intergalactic election crusader Count Binface.
6. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life which book would it be?
Well, the first book that comes to mind is 'What On Earth? An Alien's Guide to Fixing Britain' by Count Binface, which is the greatest political manifesto in the history of the omniverse. But aside from that, I'd have to pick The Odyssey, which might be 2700 years old (give or take) but as an adventure story filled with love, sex, tragedy and heroism it's still yet to be beaten.
7. I like to end my Q&As with the same question so here we go. During all the Q&As and interviews you've done what question have you not been asked that you wish had been asked – and what's the answer?
That's a great question. I think maybe the one thing that interviews haven't picked up on (yet) is that the period covered by my sporting odyssey is 2016-17, which is exactly the same time that I found myself starting my unlikely political career, when I took on Theresa May in the 2017 General Election (then as 'Lord Buckethead') and went viral around the world, ending up on John Oliver's HBO show 'Last Week Tonight' and performing to 5000 people at the Glastonbury Festival. Nobody's asked me how I managed to fit all of that and the sporting adventure into the same few months. And I'm not sure how I'd answer it: even now it feels like a strange dream. But there are still lots of secrets to tell about all of that, which fingers crossed might turn up in a future book. (Note to publishers: call my agent.)
About the Book
What do you do when your world changes in an instant? For Jon Harvey, after the sudden death of his brother, it meant turning to the thing that had given him support, joy and a lifetime of memories: sport, in all its myriad sublime and ridiculous forms. A kaleidoscopic twelve months took him from London Olympia to ancient Olympia, from rugby balls to Rubik's Cubes, Wimbledon tennis to Wimbledon greyhounds, Twickenham to Frimley Green, Roger Federer to Martin 'Wolfie' Adams, and much, much more. It's a celebration, of a life shaped by sport, and the ultimate season ticket.
You can buy a copy of the book here.
(This is an affiliate link. You can also purchase A Fan For All Seasons from your local independent bookshop.)
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