| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Place of birth | Portsmouth, England | ||
| Height | 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) | ||
| Playing position | Centre half | ||
James Riordan (born 1936 in Portsmouth[1]) is a retired English novelist, broadcaster, association football player and Russian scholar.[2]
Well known for his work Sport in Soviet Society, the first academic look at sport in the Soviet Union, and for his children's novels.
He claims to have been the first Briton to play football in the former USSR, playing for FC Spartak Moscow in 1963.[3]
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James Riordan learned to speak Russian during National Service training in the Royal Air Force in 1955–57. In 1960, he graduated in Russian Studies at the University of Birmingham, before qualifying as a teacher at the London Institute of Education.
In 1963, Riordan studied at the Communist higher party school in Moscow; he was an avowed Communist, and was one of the few English students at the school. The foreign community there included English defectors Kim Philby and Guy Burgess, formerly of the Cambridge Spy ring.[3]
It has to be noted that unfortunately Riordan's claim that he played for Spartak Moscow in 1963 does not actually stand up to any scrutiny. The games he describes do not bear any resemblance to any of Spartak's matches that season.
Riordan's first novel Sweet Clarinet won the NASEN Award, and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Children's Book Award. The Match of Death won the South Lanarkshire Book Award. The Gift was also shorted for the NASEN Award.[1]