I was twelve years old when I attended my first and only live football match. The football club NEC was playing against the mighty Ajax. ‘Football is war,’ was the phrase Dutch national team manager Rinus Michels would coin a few years later.

I regularly watch football programmes on TV for relaxation, especially when they discuss football. Occasionally I would like to see book programmes on TV which discussed books with the same fervour as football. Marcel Reich-Ranicki: ‘Reading is not only the fulfilment of anticipation, but also a protest’.

‘Writing is very straightforward, but the most difficult part is writing straightforwardly’ Paraphrasing Johan Cruijff’s saying: ‘Playing football is very straightforward, but the most difficult part is playing straightforwardly.’

What do you think?