The Project that brought to life a long lost book...
Portrait of Promotion, was a thin paperback volume written by Ken Furphy and edited by Oli Phillips following Watford finishing champions in 1969. It was a fantastic insight into a season that changed Watford forever and remains to this day a treasured item for many who were there at the time. Unfortunately, when the Watford Observer had it printed, they must have gone to the same people who create post-it notes. I would hazard a guess that nowhere in this fine land of our does a perfectly intact copy exist.
So, in autumn of 2024 David Harrison suggested we revisit the book, and republish it in the ‘Treasury format’. This soon developed into the notion of building upon it, including far more photos and adding sections of fresh material to offer a deeper insight into that campaign and those who took part in it. Permissions were gained from both Keith, Ken’s son, and the Watford Observer, and it all became a viable option. Adding three interviews with those who played – the late Keith Eddy, Stewart Scullion and Brian Owen – plus a look at what became of those players who took Watford higher than they had ever gone before, we – in conjunction with the always-wonderful Watford Observer who supplied all the images – created a wonderful hardback book called Champions. We thought it appropriate that all profits would go to Golden Memories (the Watford Community trust’s dementia initiative), so not only were people getting a lovely book, but also helping a great cause.
Released just before that Christmas we proudly had it sent out to eager buyers, some of whom discovered all the pages fell out!
As fitting as lost unbound pages may have been in-keeping with the original, we thought it wasn’t really very good! Much toing-and-froing followed before eventually we were able to replace the whole print run with newly printed versions from a different facility (with all costs covered by the printers), and at last could proudly say we had created the book that truly paid homage to Ken and his team.
It's a book we, as the Treasury team, are all very proud of, and one which does the source material justice, whilst really expanding upon it. If you haven’t got a copy I’d personally really recommend getting one!
