A Look At: Genius Does As it Must

Book Review: Genius Does as it Must - Liverpool FC Banners Compiled by Chris McLoughlin and Adam Oldfield

When people talk about the atmosphere at Anfield, particularly on a European night, they often refer to the singing and the raw emotion that there is in the ground. Too often, they fail to pick up on an important element that distinguishes Liverpool fans from many of their English counterparts: the banners that adorn the stands.

This is a tradition that has been going on from the seventies - with the Joey Jones one being the most iconic from that era - and goes on today. Indeed, the history that there exists around these banners fuels the creation of even better ones as fans try to outdo their predecessors with wittier retorts.

Now the best of these banners have been captured in a fantastic book called 'Genius Does as It Must - Liverpool FC Banners' which is a pictorial guide to the best that Liverpool fans have been able to think of over the past four decades.

As you'd expect, there isn't much to read here but it is still easy to lose yourself in this book for a couple of hours as you go from one banner to the other. Because, regardless of how often you see them, you always seem to notice something new.

The only disappointment with this book - and I have to say that it was quite a major one when I opened the package - is its size. Indeed for a photo book, I was expecting something much larger than a book the size of a postcard. The design is excellent and nowhere is there any photo that looks crammed in. Even so, it could have easily afforded being twice its size or even more which would have made it a luxurious permanent on my coffee table.

As it stands, it'll just have to make do with sitting on my bookshelf like other mere mortal books conscious, however, that the entertainment that it offers is much more everlasting than the rest.

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