'As good an explanation as you will ever read of how the deindustrialisation of the 70s and 80s fuelled Brexit' The Times

'Magnificent . . . A fascinating insight into a decade that changed the nature of sport and changed the face of the country' Rory Smith, Chief Soccer Correspondent, New York Times

Featuring many interviews with sportsmen, managers, miners, musicians, fans and local politicians, this deeply researched and moving investigation casts a new light on an era that read the last rites for the country's collective culture.

"A tender and often terrifying tour of some of Yorkshire's - and England's - most cherished sporting institutions and the communities that surround and succour them, and how their experience reflects the nation's swaying fortunes since the start of the 1980s, A Yorkshire Tragedy is compelling, illuminating, very human and often quite moving." - Guardian

"Again the echoes of Brexit are clear. Commentators and strategists just weren't listening to the right conversations. Or reading the right things. J. D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy eloquently tells the story of the "left behind" in the Appallachians and the social and economic costs of change that fuelled the rage underpinning Trump. The British equivalent is the brilliant A Yorkshire Tragedy by Anthony Clavane, which is as good an explanation as you will ever read of how the deindustrialisation of the 70s and 80s fuelled Brexit." - The Times

"The language sparkles, the insights flash . . . The rise and fall of Yorkshire sporting giants is a marvellous prism for the social and economic change in the region . . . Essential." - Prospect

"This is a wonderful book, at its heart about why we love our sport with such a passion." - Forty20 (national rugby league magazine)