TRS Book: Follow We Will

Some people might be wondering why we decided to pursue this project. As we announced recently, the authors’ proceeds will be going to the Rangers Charity Foundation so it certainly isn’t for personal financial gain. Put simply, we believe Rangers fans should be responsible for telling our story and the story of our club. We shouldn’t let others to do that for us because you can be sure we will lose out. Some will no doubt question our take on events; that’s fine because we question their interpretation. Judging by some of the reaction so far, it seems as though a few people don’t think Rangers fans should be allowed to write about one of the most significant periods in our club’s history. The book will be no white-wash but we hope it will make a small contribution to ensuring recent events are remembered properly.

When we launched The Rangers Standard last year we produced a mission statement. Part of this read: ‘We plan to not only challenge any unfair, negative, media and political representation of the club and fans, but also examine how we can improve the way the club is perceived through positive action.’ We hope the book will do all of these things and more. Follow We Will: The Fall and Rise of Rangers describes and analyses, from a Rangers perspective, all the relevant issues and events from an unprecedented period in the history of Scottish football. This is the story of how the world’s most successful football club found itself in the Third Division and the loyalty that started to propel it back to the top.

We have already released some information about the book and we would like to thank those who have helped us spread the word using social media or internet forums. Although it might distress some, we can confirm that the book definitely exists and for that we need to thank our contributors: Colin Armstrong, Iain Duff, David Edgar, Ross EJ Hendry, David Kinnon, Gail Richardson Calvin Spence and Richard Wilson. For your trouble (and your £9.99) you will also get chapters from Stewart Franklin, John DC Gow, Chris Graham and Alasdair McKillop.

We are now in a position to reveal the front cover design (see below).

Follow We Will: The Fall and Rise of Rangers

Follow We Will: The Fall and Rise of Rangers can be pre-ordered from Amazon by clicking here.

More information can be found on the website of Luath Press where you can also order the book.

 

In addition, we can also reveal that the book will have two forewords written by Graham Walker and club legend Walter Smith. Graham is Professor of Political History at Queen’s University Belfast. He is co-editor with Ronnie Esplin of It’s Rangers For Me? and Rangers: Triumphs, Troubles, Traditions. He is the co-author, also with Ronnie Esplin, of The Official Biography of Rangers. Few people have done more to fight Rangers’ corner and we are delighted that he agreed to contribute to Follow We Will.

We trust Walter needs no introduction and we are equally delighted that he agreed to write something for us. As you will notice from the front cover, he describes Follow We Will as a: ‘book written by people who care deeply about Rangers but who also believe questions must be asked... a calm, composed narrative which goes a long way to explaining much of what has gone on around the club over these last few years.’

We hope you will agree with his assessment and thank everyone for their support!

- Stewart Franklin, John DC Gow, Chris Graham and Alasdair McKillop