Newcastle United Stole My Heart: Sixty Years in Black and White w/ Michael Chaplin

A treat for all sports fans on Tyneside. On the publication of the updated paperback of his acclaimed memoir of family and football, Michael Chaplin will be in conversation with George Caulkin of The Athletic, who has been covering the game in the North-East since 1994 and is for many supporters one of the most thoughtful and perceptive football writers of his generation.

When it first appeared in 2021 Newcastle United Stole My Heart – Sixty Years in Black And White was acclaimed by fans and critics alike. The book was a New Statesman Book Of The Year, described as ‘a marvellous book’ in The Guardian and praised by Sting as ‘a remarkable evocation of place, of time and obsession with a football club.’

About the book

The magnificent story of a writer’s lifelong obsession with his city and its football club.

When 5-year-old Michael Chaplin landed in a strange city of ships  in the late 1950s, he looked in vain for something that would anchor him to it, make him feel at home. Then, one Saturday afternoon, it came: the roar of a crowd, and a football team to support. Young Michael became an avid Newcastle United fan, and has remained one—if sometimes disenchanted—for over sixty years.

In this football memoir with a difference, the celebrated playwright and screenwriter tells the story of his six-decade love affair with the club, each chapter recreating an iconic Newcastle match: the players who graced the game, the managers in the dug-out, and the backdrop outside the stadium—both the changing face of Newcastle, and the ups and downs of Michael’s own life and career.

This vivid, thoughtful and entertaining book is an absolute must-read for all Newcastle United supporters, and indeed—given that the club is often described as everyone’s second favourite—for football fans everywhere…

About the speakers

George Caulkin has been reporting on football in the North East of England since 1994, 21 of those years for The Times. There have been a few ups, a multitude of downs and precisely one meaningful trophy.

Michael Chaplin is a playwright, a television and non-fiction writer, and a former producer and executive at ITV and the BBC. His writing credits include the highly successful television series Grafters and Monarch of the Glen, as well as nearly 100 plays for the theatre and BBC Radio 4.