chris Hunt author & editor
The first place for info on Chris Hunt's career as a writer and editor of magazines & books
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‘ESCAPE FROM HOLLAND'
Just before dawn on May 10, 1940, German parachute troops rain down on Holland. Watching from his home on the Dutch coast is footballer Billy Marsden. It’s ten years to the day since the Germans saved his life in a Berlin hospital after he broke his neck playing for England but now it’s the German invasion of Holland that’s putting his life in jeopardy.
In The Hague, Margot Fonteyn and the Sadler’s Wells Ballet watch the dogfights from the roof of their hotel. In Amsterdam, journalist David Woodward and his American wife, NBC war correspondent Margaret Rupli, are trying to file the story of the invasion, while young British diplomat Peers Carter is attempting to organise an evacuation just eight months into the job.
Set across one weekend in May 1940, this is the true story of how all these people came together, along with a dozen more British football coaches and three million pounds worth of diamonds, to escape on the last boat out of Holland before the Dutch capitulated.
"The dash for the last British boat out of Holland in May 1940, a true story of football, ballet, journalism and war"
'DOING IT FOR THE KIDS'
“HOW I SURVIVED 12 YEARS AS A GRASSROOTS FOOTBALL DAD AND LIVED TO TELL THE TALE”
No one writes a book about how to survive grassroots football. No one gives you a manual explaining that when your child joins a team your social circle changes and you will spend every Saturday morning with people you have little in common with. No one warns you that youth football will turn you into such an awful person that you won’t even recognise yourself in the mirror. Indeed, on your worst days you will hope that one of your child’s horrible teammates will pick up an injury because that’s the only way your kid can get off the sub’s bench and onto the pitch, where most of the starting positions are dominated by the children of the coaches. Yes, nobody writes that book. Until now.
LIMITED EDITION FIRST EDITION – BACK IN STOCK SOON
About Chris Hunt – editor & Author
Chris Hunt writes about football and music. His memoir Doing It For The Kids saw him in the world of grassroots football, while World Cup Stories accompanied a BBC TV series. He was editor of numerous special editions of Mojo, Q, NME and Uncut, including five about The Beatles. After launching Hip-Hop Connection he turned Match into the biggest selling football magazine in the UK and his encyclopedia, The Complete Book of Football, has been published in the UK, Australia, the USA and in five foreign language editions.
Books by Chris Hunt
The Complete Book of Football (2003)
World Cup Stories (2006)
The Compact Book of the World Cup (2010)
Doing It For The Kids (2025)
Escape From Holland (2026)
Going that extra mile for the story
As a writer, Chris Hunt has covered four World Cups and interviewed two England managers. He once wrote a column for Your Cat magazine called My Life With Stalin – an everyday tale of one bloke and his cat. He has interviewed legends of every kind, from footballers Gordon Banks, Jairzinho and Eusebio, to rock stars Roger Daltrey, Lemmy and Kiss, and to rappers Public Enemy, De La Soul and Run DMC. He once interviewed Queen Latifah at the top of the Empire State Building, proving he'll always go that extra mile for a good story.
Magazines by Chris Hunt
Editor of Elite Soccer 2016–2023
Editor of Soccer Coach Weekly 2012–2014
Editor of Hotspur 2007–2008
Editor of Uncut & NME special editions 2003–2006
Editor of Match! Football Krazy 2003–2006
Editor of Super Goals for The Sun 2003
Editor of Mojo & Q special editions 2001–2003
Editor of Sported 1996–1998
Editor of Big Shots 1993–2001
Editor-in-Chief of MATCH 1993–2001
Editor of Mega Sports 1993
Managing Editor of Rage 1990–1991
Editor of Hip-Hop Connection 1988–1990 & 1992–1993
Editor of Solid Rock 1987
Publishing & WRITING Awards
1996 Emap Awards: Editor Of The Year for Match – winner
1995 Emap Awards: Most Improved Magazine for Match – winner
1997 Emap Awards: Launch Of The Year for Sported – winner
1996 PPA Awards Editor Of The Year – highly commended
1981 Cambridge Footlights Young Writer Of The Year winner