Hammer Time: Me, West Ham, and a Passion for the Shirt

Julian Dicks, a former West Ham United player, has written a book called "Hammer Time" that captures the spirit of football in an era before sanitised PR and social media self-promotion. The book is filled with entertaining tales from Dicks' career and the East End of the 1980s and 90s, featuring cult figures who had bags of talent and personality. It evokes memories of intimidating away crowds, muddy pitches, no-nonsense tackling, and the special camaraderie that was forged between players of that era. The book also serves as an open love letter to the unique character and atmosphere of West Ham United and East London.

Format: Hardback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 08 June 2023
Publisher: Headline Publishing Group

The Sun is a newspaper that is full of eventful tales from the past. It has punchy, earthy, and entertaining stories that capture football in an era long before sanitised PR and Instagram self-promotion. The Independent is a newspaper that has a hugely entertaining romp through football and the East End of the Eighties and Nineties.

Cult figure is a term hardly used in football these days, but in the sterile and corporate modern game, there is room for the mercurial midfielder, the tough-tackling defender, and the pot-bellied goal poacher. Rewind two or three decades, and British professional football was stuffed to the gunnels with these one-offs: players with bags of talent, yes, but also lorryloads of personality and a hugely relatable quality that meant they'd all be playing Sunday morning park football if they hadn't become professionals. No media training, no filter, no 5% body fat, no cryotherapy chambers, and no quiet nights in with a curly kale salad and a glass of carrot juice.

Meet Julian Dicks. Wonderful name, wonderful player, and undoubtedly one of the greatest cult figures to play for West Ham United. Hammer Time is Dicks' hugely entertaining romp through his career with West Ham, shot through with all the great anecdotes of life as a pro back then, and peppered with all the marvelous characters who crossed his path in those halcyon days. It evokes memories of intimidating away crowds, muddy pitches, no-nonsense tackling, card schools on the bus, big nights out after matches, and the special camaraderie that was forged between players of that era.

Hammer Time is also an open love letter to the unique character and atmosphere of West Ham United and East London, conjuring up memories of intimidating away crowds, muddy pitches, no-nonsense tackling, card schools on the bus, big nights out after matches, and the special camaraderie that was forged between players of that era. It is a must-read for any football fan who wants to relive the glory days of British professional football.

Weight: 558g
Dimension: 162 x 242 x 31 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781472296566