Land of the Giants

Land of the Giants takes the reader inside the world of the table football and Subbuteo. From the collectors and team painters, to the players and stadium builders, their stories are all here. A love letter to an old-fashioned favourite, still loved by so many, and a game which refuses to die in an age of technological change.

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When the Covid-19 lockdown hit in March 2020, millions of people suddenly found themselves confined to their homes, with their lives on hold as the planet fought a deadly pandemic.


Land of the Giants: My Journey Through the World of Table Football chronicles the author’s discovery of a vibrant Subbuteo sub-culture and the emergence of an online community that was determined to keep alive a game under threat.


Over a period of three years Derek Air met and interviewed dozens of those dedicated to the game.


This book tells their stories: the collectors who scour the charity shops, collectors’ fairs and online auction sites in search of that rarity they hope will complete their collections; the players who take the game so seriously that they train as hard for competition as their 11-a-side counterparts; the artists, who paint their figures and bring to life great teams, past and present and even those that recreate famous stadia at scale. Land of the Giants is a love letter to an old-fashioned favourite, a much-loved game, and one that simply refuses to die.