This Ayr United Thing - More Iliad than Illyria

By Duncan Carmichael

Club Historian Duncan Carmichael reflects on the curious consequences that supporting a local football club will have.

Fifty-five years of writing programme notes have done nothing to diminish Duncan's enthusiasms: practicing stoicism, patience, emotional control in times of stress, perfect knowledge of transport timetables, motorway toilets and recommended fish-and-chiperies.

Generations of Carmichaels have found their lives rearranged by fixtures and foul weather, and here Duncan blends family reminiscences with reports of battles won and lost on a journey featuring glorious defeats and routine victories, but as yet no happiness at the still-elusive end.

Duncan's databases and archives of epic proportions are the accurate grounding for a fascinating review of one club's mesmeric hold on a typical Saturday foot-soldier.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1849212619
• ISBN13: 9781849212618
• Release Date: September 2025
• Publisher: Kennedy & Boyd
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 2.09 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"