ANTHONY CLAVANE

Born and brought up in Leeds, Anthony is the author of Promised Land, a social and cultural history of Leeds United, which was named Sports Book of the Year in 2010. His second book, Does Your Rabbi Know You’re Here?, was nominated for Football Book of the Year. His latest book, A Yorkshire Tragedy, looks at how the county’s sporting landscape has changed since the 1980s. He has had three plays performed in Leeds by Red Ladder. Playing the Joker, about rugby league and Yorkshire identity, which was originally at the West Yorkshire Playhouse and is now touring Yorkshire; Promised Land and Leeds Lads were both put on at Leeds Carriageworks and co-written with Nick Stimson.

A journalist for 28 years Anthony now writes a weekly arts column for the Yorkshire Post. For many years he covered sport for the Sunday Mirror. He also writes for the New European, the Blizzard, the Guardian and the New Statesman.