Through a series of thematic chapters, Hamilton evokes an insider's view of the Brian Clough's tumultuous reign at Nottingham Forest, the club he covered as a local football journalist through much of Clough's 20 years there. A heady mix of the triumphs, failures, friendships, and factions that defined Clough's era, as well as his later decent into alcoholism, paranoia, and fall outs with those closest to him.

There are many books about Clough, but this one arguably captures him at his best and worst, showing the conflicting sides of his personality that enabled him to achieve so much, but perhaps hindered him in many other ways as well.

Some Leeds United content, but none of it favourable. Clough's hatred of the club, and its figurehead Don Revie, only intensified after his sacking, just 44 days into his managerial role there. His sense of injustice and fear of failure spurred him on to great things, but also caused many rifts personally and professionally that ultimately would be his downfall.

A personal and insightful account of one of football's strongest personalities. If you only ever read one book on Brian Clough, make it Hamilton's.

Excellent account of Duncan's dealings with Cloughie while he was boss at Forest. ( )

Touching personal account from someone who spent many years in close proximity to Clough. This wonderfully written account does try and give a exhaustive account of the man, but rather paints a sense of who he was through a series of sketches around some of the key moments in Clough's time at Nottingham Forest. Unflinching, saddening and very tender, this is a superb biography. ( )

Having read (and reviewed) David Peace's excellent novel 'The Damned Utd' revolving round Brian Clough's turbulent 44 days as manager of Leeds, I welcomed the chance of gaining more insight to the man himself by someone who genuinely knew him well. Duncan Hamilton was football correspondent for the Nottingham Evening Post for most of Clough's time as manager of Nottingham Forest and seems to have become closer to him for over 20 years than any other professional excepting Clough's friend and colleague (until they fell out) Peter Taylor. Clough was rarely guarded in his comments even in the full glare of the media but Hamilton enjoyed special status as a confidant; as such he was privy to thoughts and comments that had not been manufactured for public consumption or thrown like a bomb to test their effect, and he often seems to have acted as the butt of Clough's angst.

The result is a captivating psychological exploration of the manager at his most successful, and in his alcohol-induced decline. Hamilton is not particularly concerned with giving us details of the club's campaigns, still less with match statistics, preferring to focus on the mind and behaviour of the individual, and the book is all the better for it. Neither is there any traceable chronological line; rather, we have a series of vignettes - scenes that are in turn dramatic, intimate, comic, powerful, disturbing - with the often charismatic, sometimes desperately needy Clough at the centre of them.

I recognized the Clough I met in Peace's novel as well as the Clough I remember from television and from a personal encounter in the late 1970s, but I also learned much more than I already knew and was absorbed throughout by Hamilton's deep-sourced presentation of this flawed and fascinating man, who was as much a character in real life as ever portrayed in fiction. ( )