Banter & Bustle is a colourful collection of candid photographs of Sunderland fans making their way to and from both home and away games from the successful Championship winning campaign from the 2006 / 2007 season. Obviously during a 46 game season a lot can happen – a rollercoaster of highs and lows and it was certainly no exception for Sunderland fans. In a season in which we saw red & white legend and new club Chairman Niall Quinn take charge of what was quite frankly, an unsuccessful managerial debut – losing his first five games in charge and Sunderland at the bottom of the second tier in English football before the amazing turn in fortunes thanks to introduction of Keano’s managerial career which would eventually result in promotion back to the big time. Are the fortunes of Jeff Scott’s book going to be a similar story?

Well it’s a tricky one. The idea of the book is excellent and I especially like the photos of fans making their way to games, whether it’s in the magnificent Stadium of Light or over the rest of England. It’s a ritual in it’s own right – the lucky pre-match pint, buying a program or even going through the lucky turnstile – it’s something we all do week in, week out throughout the season – and it’s something Jeff has done particularly well in capturing.

The main problem of the book is lack of genuine match atmosphere in grounds, especially crowd reactions which is a shame. This isn’t Jeff’s fault, it is due to strict copyright laws surrounding football and because of this a large quantity of pictures had to be left out of the finished book. Luckily some clubs did grant their own permission to allow pictures in the book, notably Leicester City’s ground, the Walkers Stadium is in there, along with pictures in and around other grounds of Colchester United, Luton Town, Leeds United and Burnley and of course the Sunderland Stadium of Light. It really is a shame there couldn’t have been more – inside football grounds really helps to identify true football fans – who come from far and wide and from all walks of life. An interesting alternative to make up for this is made up by including various quotes from various home and away games from throughout matches from the season. I felt this was a nice touch because in some cases the banter at the match is one of the main highlights – the jokes, the criticism, the songs and chants – football matches are full of characters and the quotes (there are more than plenty) help to establish this.

Sadly despite the general appearance and organisation of the book being visually appealing on the cover, the book is strongly let down by quality of photographs. I know they are meant to be candid shots, but at times they look like someone’s holiday snaps taken on a disposable camera – some are even blurred and out of focus which isn’t great to see in a published book and it may really put people off purchasing it which is a massive shame.

The idea of the book is great, but the poor quality photographs are a disappointment.

Chris Davies