Peace gets us into spirit of the season

I see a lot of ink, or air, or gigabytes, being expended on a new book by David Peace, Red or Dead, about Bill Shankly, who once managed Liverpool.

Peace has form, as we say, when it comes to soccer and novels: he wrote The Damned United, which tracked Brian Clough through his troubled stewardship of Leeds United, which lasted about a month and a half.

Before that he wrote books about Yorkshire in the 70s and 80s, the Red Riding series, which are overshadowed by the looming presence of the Yorkshire Ripper.