Tears for England

The roller-coaster story of the last 50 years of England’s football team, seen through the eyes of a national press journalist and obsessive fan.


Robert Taylor is an author, journalist, broadcaster and England football obsessive who writes columns for the Telegraph, Spectator and Express.


Tears for England interweaves the team’s occasional triumphs and frequent woes with the author’s life story, starting with his first memories of football in the mid-1970s:


• Journey through England’s last 50 years, from home internationals in the 1970s to the era of Thomas Tuchel, steered by a writer who has a journalist’s eye for a story, yet is at heart a fan who never stops dreaming

• The humorous and insightful narrative guides readers through a four- or six-year period, bookended by a European Championship or World Cup

• Eighteen themed chapters cover a diverse range of subjects, including the Lionesses, a league table of England managers and a countdown of the author’s least-favourite types of England fan

• Relive Keegan’s miss in 1982, Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal in 1986, that miss by Gazza in 1996, the 2018 penalty shoot-out triumph, through to Kane’s ballooned penalty against France in 2022 and Ollie Watkins’s semi-final winner in Euro 2024


Tears for England is a glorious page-turner for football fans, young and old. It’s a must-read for all those keen to understand why England football matters so much.