Birdsong on Holbeck Moor by Billy Morris

06/01/2023  -  10.35

Book Review by Alex Alexandrou

I really enjoyed reading this football and war crime novel. It is refreshingly different because it is dark, fast-paced, with short, snappy chapters that allow the story to flow from many different perspectives. It is set against the backdrop of Leeds City FC and centres on the Holleran family, whose criminal dealings, as well as let us say their spiritual activities, pervade and touch upon all the main characters to some greater or lesser degree.

It certainly brings the First World War to life, be it on the home front or on the front line. The reader gets a real sense of the what it was like to be in the trenches, the fear soldiers felt, as well as the stench of the battlefield. Whilst back home it weaves in such issues as white feathers, reserved occupations, the role of women in the workplace, munitionettes, rationing, wartime criminality, post-traumatic stress disorder, Spanish Flu epidemic, as well as football continuing and the ensuing moral debate surrounding that.

Billy Morris is to be congratulated on creating so many intricate storylines that use different characters that come from various backgrounds and have a variety of occupations. They act as threads that will ultimately draw the main story of a corrupt football club and criminal family together in a coherent way but still ensure there are many twists and turns. Notably, in terms of different characters dealing with the darker and at times brutal aspects of humanity, as well as moral issues be they from a military, civilian or social perspective.

The reader will empathise with characters such as Arthur Rowley, battle with the moral dilemmas that not only his brother Edgar faces but also some of those involved with the football club. Whilst, the chief protagonist, Frank Holleran, whose antics based around greed bemuses the reader, as well as causing them indignation. There are heroes and villains in this book but not in the clichéd way, you find in other crime novels. This is because of the darkness that surrounds and envelops many of the characters that draws the reader towards them and keeps them turning the pages.

The book is independently published and is available to buy through Amazon - £8.99, softback, 175 pages.

Alex Alexandrou is the Co-Founder and Chair of the Football and War Network