Only a word like ‘mammoth’ could have justified the 781-page book that goes the extra mile to be comprehensive in every way. If you like football, we suggest you pick this “most comprehensive guide to the World Cup, from 1930 to 2014”. But you have to be fact-friendly because it’s packed with reams of information.

An artist works on a graffiti in celebration of the FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 at Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo. Pic/AFP

The lowdown is that here is a book that is chatty in tone, pre-supposes your knowledge of the game and massive when it comes to facts. For instance, at the start, when you are trying to ease the spine of the book (which ironically reminds us of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace) you enter the section, ‘A Brief-ish guide to terms and tactics’. Just into the fourth sentence, Holt speaks of how “the first proper formation to evolve from the game’s early days of kick-and-rush was the 2-3-5”.