Out of Time

A vibrant and captivating portrait of the summer of 1966 – as a man, a team and a country all teetered on the cusp of momentous change

'This joyous book, a memoir of late adolescence laced with social and football history, is also a catalogue of both the untidiness and the limits of change' Financial Times

'Out of Time is a gentle and affectionate portrait of the capital's gradual awakening to the charm of pop culture at that time.' Economist

London, July 1966. Peter Chapman, a naïve 18-year-old from Islington, is on the brink of adulthood. Everything is changing: having failed his A-levels and recently discovered he will not be fulfilling his dream of becoming a professional footballer at Leyton Orient, he is just about to enter the world of work.

The world around him is changing too: Britain is trying to adjust to the beat of the Swinging Sixties – though many ears remain deaf to it, still hoping to re-establish a sense of stability in a time of social, political and cultural flux.

And under the watchful gaze of the wider world, England is about to play host to the football World Cup and have one of the most significant sporting successes in its history.

Focused around that World Cup victory, Peter Chapman’s wryly evocative memoir Out of Time captures the spirit of that year and paints a vivid portrait of a young man, a football team and a whole country all trying to find their new place in the world.