Nationality British Name James Montague | Role Writer | |
Notable works When Friday Comes, Thirty One Nil, Love At First Monk: An Autobiography by James P Montague Books Thirty-One Nil, When Friday Comes: Football in the War Zone | ||
James Piotr Montague (born 28 July 1979) is a British writer and journalist. After studying Politics at Exeter University he discovered his love for writing. His first book, When Friday Comes: Football in the War Zone (Mainstream) follows his travels across the Middle East, visiting some of the most difficult countries in that area and looking at the relationship between football and politics. The book won him the Best New Writer at the 2009 British Sports Book Awards, run by the National Sporting Club.
A heavily revised second edition,[2] was published in May 2013. Upon returning from his travels Montague said he could continually envisage the image of the dancing children at his feet, idolizing him and shouting “face of Rooney, face of Rooney!"
He is a freelance journalist, writing for the likes of the New York Times, CNN and World Soccer and can also be heard regularly on the BBC World Service's award winning World Football podcast. His second book, Thirty One Nil: On The Road With Football's Outsiders, a World Cup Odyssey, was published by Bloomsbury in May 2014. The book was named Football Book of the Year at the 2015 British Sports Book of the Year Awards
He is currently working on his second book Thirty One Nil, the story of World Cup qualification, which will be published by A&C Black in May 2014. He then plans to complete his memoirs entitled Love at First Monk: A Mothers Biography by James P Montague.