Living a double life in the city of dreams

"I had one set of best friends who were into football, but had never read a book, and I had a group of friends who were really into reading, but would never play football," says Clavane.

"They never found out about each other."

Loiner Clavane was eventually able to bring together his two passions – football and reading – in his day job.

As sports writer for the Sunday Mirror, Clavane travels the world interviewing sports heroes and writing their stories.

Now he has fulfilled an even greater dream by writing the book that unites not just these two passions, but many.

Promised Land is Clavane's memoir which tells the story of the rise and fall of Leeds United, combining the team's changing fortunes with those of the city.

Clavane, the great grandson of Phillip Clavanski, a Russian Jew, also traces in the book the key role of the Jewish community in the making of both the city of Leeds and its football club.

The book is also a paean to the northern working-class writers who inspired Clavane to first pick up a pen.

"The truth was, I didn't want to write a book that looked at the changing fortunes of Leeds United; that has already been done – brilliantly – by Rob Bagchi in The Unforgiven," says Clavane.

"Neither did I want to write a book that looked at the city and examined its changing fortunes, because that's something that David Peace has done, incredibly brilliantly, in his novels.

"I felt a voice that was missing was one that praised Leeds, looked at it as a place of metamorphosis, not fatalism, which is how I always think of the city.

"My heroes, the literary heroes in particular, had the aspiration to transcend the limitations of their circumstance. Writers like Willis, David Storey, Keith Waterhouse, they were working-class Leeds writers for whom the option of a ticket out of their circumstances came in the form of sport or writing.

"The same went for my sporting heroes like Don Revie and Billy Bremner. I wanted to add my voice to the stories about Leeds, a voice which praised them for transcending the way they did and which paid tribute to the city."

Clavane's great grandfather arrived in Leeds speaking no English. His grandfather was a tailor, his father a manager and Clavane was the first of his family to go to university. That journey from a Russian Jewish immigrant to a university graduate in three generations is another

one Clavane explores in Promised Land.

His journey to writing began when he was a child with two separate groups of friends.

"The football-mad mates wanted to be Billy Bremner and the other group who loved books wanted to be Billy Fisher, from the novel, Billy Liar.

"In a way, this book attempts to bring together those two different Billys, who had such a big influence on me."

The Keith Waterhouse novel, published in 1959, the year before Clavane was born, was a heavy influence in his early years.

"As soon as I read the book, I knew I wanted to be a writer. Almost immediately, I started writing my own stories – I even had one published in the Yorkshire Evening Post, which was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me," says Clavane.

The early taste of journalism did not immediately translate into a career, and after university, Clavane came back to Leeds to teach.

"I was 30 and I remember looking at another teacher in the staff room. He had patches on his elbows and was smoking a pipe, and my memory tells me he was wearing slippers. I remember thinking that he could have been me in 30 years time," says Clavane.

So he quit teaching, enrolled on a training course and became a cub reporter on the East Anglian Daily Times. From there, he began to write for the Independent and eventually landed his job on the Sunday Mirror.

While Promised Land features a picture of a Leeds team from the Seventies with the FA cup on its cover, Clavane is hopeful that, thanks to the work of pioneers, the book will reach an audience outside of the football terraces.

"Nick Hornby changed everything for people writing about football. He once said that people spoke to him to tell him that Fever Pitch was the only book they had ever read, but I think with that book it became possible to write about life inside a football context and appeal to a wider audience," says Clavane.

"I hope that the book will be read by people who are interested in the football element, but also the Jewish community who will find

the hidden story of Leeds and the Jewish community's part in it.

"As a child, my two favourite places were Elland Road and Leeds Library – to bring together two of my lifelong passions in this book has been incredibly gratifying."

Promised Land is published by Yellow Jersey Press.

Anthony Clavane is holding a signing at WH Smith, at the White Rose Centre, in Leeds, with Peter Lorimer, at 3pm today.

He is signing his book with Eddie Gray, at Waterstones, Leeds, at 10am tomorrow, and on Wednesday, August 25, he is giving a talk at the Ziff Community Centre, Leeds, at 8pm.

On August 26, he is signing at Philip Howard Books, Leeds, at 11am and hosting a talk at The Leeds Library, 18 Commercial Street, Leeds, the same day at 5.30pm-6.30pm.