Answered Prayers cover art

Answered Prayers

England and the 1966 World Cup

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Answered Prayers

By: Duncan Hamilton
Narrated by: Jonathan Firth
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £19.99

Buy Now for £19.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Written by our greatest sportswriter, three time winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year, Duncan Hamilton.

Answered Prayers is a definitive history of the most famous event in British sporting, the triumph of the 1966 England world cup football team and the disastrous effect that victory had on the game.

©2023 Duncan Hamilton (P)2023 Quercus Editions Limited
Football (Soccer) Sports Sports History Football England
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Three Lives of the Kaiser cover art
A Northern Wind cover art
Turning Points cover art
The Weimar Years cover art
On the Ashes cover art
Nowhere to Run cover art
Blue Murder cover art
White Hot cover art
Seasons in the Sun cover art
Wicked Beyond Belief cover art
My Sporting Life cover art
Football and How to Survive It cover art
BBC Sports Report cover art
On Days Like These cover art
Being Geoffrey Boycott cover art
Jock Stein cover art

Critic reviews

"Hamilton has a perceptively humane understanding of men for whom football was never just a game" (Guardian)

"A marriage of prose and detail so fine and fastidious that it takes the breath away." (Independent)

"Justifiably prize-winning." (Mail on Sunday)

What listeners say about Answered Prayers

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    21
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    19
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    22
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A fantastic insight into England’s 1966 World Cup win

A really brilliant book that looks at our national football team’s greatest success and in particular the contribution of the mastermind of that triumph, Sir Alf Ramsey.

It is quite poignant in parts - particularly how badly Ramsey and the players were treated by the FA afterwards.

A great story which is well told and well read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Exceptional Book

A really interesting sports book that synchs brilliantly with the time it covers. Thought the narration really added to it - was v well suited to what is a
pretty sad story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

What a sad way to treat your hero’s.

Enjoyable account of the build up, to the day of this epic encounter and the aftermath, beautifully written. What a sad way we treated these hero’s of ours and the man that masterminded the whole operation. This is the definitive story, detailed and told with feeling, it beggars belief just how little they were rewarded by The FA, which is what they got sweet FA compared to what they would have earned today, not the money, but the celebrity status, the sponsorship deals and PR opportunities, not to mention the knighthoods.
Instead the were treated shabbily by the powers to be, certain individuals and the government at that time. Can you imagine what they would be worth today after winning the World Cup, made for life! It was not to be, wrong time, wrong place.
Alf Ramsey would be called upon by the corporates to show us how to build a winning team, and he did, with utter conviction and belief, a disciplinarian with his players, his masters and the press, the various players all play a part obviously, some more then others, but Duncan Hamiltons account is excellent and a must listen to story that led the way to that famous day in July 1966 and then the sad fallout that followed.
This is a must listen to experience of history, how sport can bring a nation together, the economic benefits and that wonderful sense of satisfaction of being the best in the World…I wonder if history will repeat itself?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

1966, Sir Alf and all that.

Really the story of Sir Alf Ramsay’s time as England manager insightfully told in great detail. A must for anybody interested in that era. The Football Association does not come out of it well.
Let down by the narration which wasn’t suitable - a hoarse almost-whisper. Far worse was the narrator’s mispronunciation of well know figures in British football eg Jock Stein pronounced as Stine, not Steen. So many of them it undermined the book’s authority.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great read

This was a great read for someone born after 1966 and gave a great perspective on the game back then

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

My Football World Explained

As a mad West Ham fan, Moore, Hurst and Peters have been at centre of what of it means to Hammer. When I started this book I nievly thought it would just be about the 1966 final. What I got was a thorough and compelling history of the game that I have loved all my life. Told through the lives of those who took part especially Alf Ramsey, I found my self both wonderful in formed, but often very moved. If you truly love the game, this wil be a treasure for you.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great listen

Really enjoyed.., Brought back memories of a golden era, I loved the game in the’60’s and ‘70’s.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Must read / listen

Wow, we’ve been waiting a long time for this narrative of the 66 World Cup win. A fascinating profile of Alf Ramsey, the players, and the FA council.
A must read for those interested in English football history and how it was run.
Well done Mr Hamilton, another fantastic book and an award on the way I hope.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great Sports Book

Beautifully written and narrated. Wonderful in depth book of a period that I thought I knew all about. Contextualises the 1966 World Cup and Sir Alf Ramsey perfectly.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent book somewhat let down by the audio

As expected from Hamilton, this is a fine book, but the reader frustratingly mispronounces many names. It reveals he does not, unlike the author who deserves better, know his football. Poor from the production team for selecting him and also not knowing that he got Stein, Molineux, Lytham, Lymn, Astle and, initially, Cullis all wrong.




Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful