Wigan legend shares recollections in new book looking at rugby league in Thatcherite Britain

Hope and Glory is the latest title by writer and historian Anthony Broxton, who is best known for his work on the Labour Party, as well as his role as the editor of the Tides of History Project.

The new book looks at how rugby league was expected to suffer the same fate as the textile mills, factories and coal mines during Margaret Thatcher’s tenure as Prime Minister.

During the 1970s, the sport of the working class had declined, and appeared to be at the point of no return in 1982, when the Australian team destroyed any remaining illusions of ‘British exceptionalism.’

Instead of disappearing, it found a way to turn itself around, going from the pit villages which fought industrial decline to the players who ushered in the new professional era, the 1980s was the decade when rugby league finally came of age.

Hope and Glory recounts the social, cultural and political history of rugby league in Thatcher’s Britain for the first time, and features the reflections of Wigan legend Shaun Edwards and former dual-code international Jonathan Davies.

The topics featured include the impacts of unemployment and the miners’ strike, the children of the Windrush generation who fought racism to become national stars, how Fleet Street and television changed the way the game was covered, and how supporters in so-called “left-behind” areas fought to preserve their teams.

It also takes a closer look at the trailblazing women who battled sexism and the idea that league was a “man’s game.”