HAGIOLOGY PUBLISHING is a collective comprising four Saints fans - David Bull, Gary Chalk, Duncan Holley and Dave Juson – each of whom has been appointed an Official Historian of Southampton FC. The collective is committed
to the collection and dissemination of accurate information
on the history of the club. If that seems a pompous
statement of their commitment, then you have obviously never
experienced the depth of their irritation at inaccuracies
published by the club or the local media - although they are
concerned to learn from their own tendencies to recycle errors:
see Can You Help Us?
To date, their dissemination of accurate information has
taken the form of answering enquiries, many of them from callers
referred by the club, about the Saints’ history (a service
they are pleased to extend to visitors to this site: see Can
We Help You?) but a major purpose of this site is to advise
you of the information on that history that has been gathered
together and published in six books.
The original collective was five-strong but Norman Gannaway, who contributed substantially to MATCH OF THE MILLENNIUM,
opted to retire at 70 from this project. He is still involved
in the production of local club and league histories, but Hagiology Publishing now consists of just the four
Saints fans:
DAVID BULL saw his first game at The Dell
in 1948, soon after which he left his native Salisbury to
become in turn a Camberley teenager, an Exeter student and
a university teacher in Exeter, Manchester and Bristol. His
‘retirement’ consists of occasionally chairing
tribunal hearings, while otherwise being absorbed in Hagiology
Publishing. A longstanding contributor to the
Saints Matchday Programme, he has also written for three Southampton
fanzines. Edited two collections of fans’ memories (1992
and 1994), as fund-raisers for the Child Poverty Action Group.
The author of DELL DIAMOND, his next Hagiology project is CONSTANT PAINE, a biography of Terry Paine.
GARY CHALK was born in Eastleigh and educated
at the Alderman Quilley School. Has been employed at the local
Railway Works for more than 30 years. A dual interest in history
and collecting led him to record and publish material on Southampton
FC (with Duncan Holley, as below). Having travelled the length
and breadth of the country collating facts and figures to
that end, he has now amassed a huge amount of ephemera including
an almost complete collection, from 1946, of the Football
Echo and Saints programmes. Shares responsibility with Dave Juson for historical contributions to the Matchday Programme.
DUNCAN HOLLEY is a fourth-generation supporter,
whose great
grandfather was an original shareholder, whose grandfather
went to the 1927 semi-final and whose dad bought a house in
Archers Road to be near The Dell, where he was a stileman
in the 1960s. Developed a passion for stats and photos and
was determined that, if he could not play for Saints, he would
write about them. The initial outcome in 1987 – SAINTS:
A COMPLETE RECORD – and its successor, IN
THAT NUMBER, each set a new standard for football club
histories (see the latter’s
reviews). While hoping for another idol to thrill him
in the manner of a Davies, Channon or Le Tissier, he somehow
feels the glory days lie in the past – which is why
he continues to appreciate and document it.
DAVE JUSON was born in Southampton and saw
his first game at The Dell in November 1962 – a six-goal
victory against Middlesbrough. Has since been a regular, geographical
location permitting. Following a diverse working life, including
seafaring, labouring, driving and selling jokes to BBC radio
satire programmes, he tried education, emerging from the University
of Leicester, via Ruskin College, with a BA in History
in 1999. Has scribed occasional heritage articles for the Echoand contributes historical features (with Gary Chalk) to the Matchday Programme. Principal author of FULL-TIME at THE DELL and SAINTS v POMPEY.
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