I AM AN ATHEIST BUT I BELIEVE in Bill Shankly. Football is like religion. Or rather football is a religion. We worship star players, stick with the team through persecution, our stadiums, whether Goodison or Glanford Park, are our cathedrals and we heartily sing our own hymns. Football keeps us sane through illness, unemployment or grief. It was no coincidence that my Grandad buried his wife on the day of the Cup Final. The match gave him a means of coping.

And now the club that is most associated with religious fervour has produced a bible. Mine arrived last week, delivered by a man who surely had wings poking out from under his leather jacket. This Is Anfield is enormous, its pages are edged in gold and it is the sort of book that a fan just stares at for a while, not needing to open it because you can anticipate the emotions that it will stir.

It is effectively Liverpool’s New Testament. It starts in 1959, thereby omitting the foundations of the club, the row that saw John Houlding, former Lord Mayor, left with an empty ground and no club once Everton had left Anfield. But what better place to start a book of worship than with the Shankly era.

There are as many photographs as words. Lots and lots of beautiful, grainy black and white images, and of course the picture that stands out is of Shankly, his arms outstretched in front of the jostling hordes in the city centre. “This one man went out and spread out his arms,” Brian Hall recalls, “and the whole crowd went quiet. It was stunning. It was such a powerful moment.”

Shankly possessed missionary zeal and was the saviour of a club that was underachieving. “Shankly was football’s first evangelist,” Andrew Thompson, the author of the bible, writes. There is not one word attributed to Shankly that is not amazing. “The most powerful, charismatic man I’ve ever met in my life,” Hall says.

At the start of the 1964-65 season, Liverpool faced West Ham United at Anfield in the Charity Shield. All was not to Shankly’s liking and he climbed out of the dug-out to stand in the Kop, asking for opinions about the players and the tactics. Shankly was revered but never forgot that he was a servant of the fans. He adored them as much they adored him. He made sure that every player felt it to be a privilege to pull on the Liverpool shirt and this book is full of quotes from players from that era.

“When I was playing, we were obsessed with playing for Liverpool,” Peter Thompson says. “Anyone who played for Liverpool was just thrilled to bits. It was always a downward move if you left. We were obsessed by that team.”

A tear-jerker is the story of Gerry Marsden, the singer, who abandoned his honeymoon because Liverpool were playing a midweek European Cup tie. “As we walked in the announcer said: ‘He didn’t go on honeymoon. He’s here to see the match with his wife.’ And they all sang You’ll Never Walk Alone. I was crying, Shanks was crying. Even the dogs under the seat were crying.”

There is such intensity of emotion in football everywhere, but nowhere more so than in Shankly’s days in charge of Liverpool. When Billy Bremner recalled winning the title with Leeds United, it was the reaction of the Kop that brought tears to his eyes. The Liverpool fans sang “Champions, champions” as Don Revie led his team around Anfield, where they had been presented with the trophy in 1969. One Liverpool banner seen at the FA Cup Final against Arsenal two years ago read: “All those who have a red heart can rejoice for they have seen God.” This time the deity was Robbie Fowler and there have been other messiahs and there will be new deities. But as this book reveals, perhaps inadvertently, no one will inspire any club more magnificently than Shankly inspired Liverpool.

TheGame and Genesis Publications have a FREE copy of This is Anfield, worth £195, to give to one lucky reader. Signed by 20 former players, it is a book that any Liverpool fanatic will treasure. To be in with a chance of winning, answer the question: Who succeeded Bill Shankly as manager of Liverpool? Entries to: This Is Anfield competition, TheGame, The Times, 1 Pennington Street, London E98 1TT. Closing date is Monday, April 11, 2003. Normal News International competition rules apply.

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