Felix White

'Written with such an emotional literacy that you want to show it to people who don't see the point of football so you can go "This! This is what it's all about. This is why it's great!" I highly recommend it'. - Jim Campbell, Football Ramble'A book so beautiful that it finally made me understand what football means. An exceptional writer.'- Bella Mackie'So much more than a book about football. A book about aging, community and memory. Rich in detail and great jokes. I wish I had written it.' - Josh Widdicombe'Mesmerising and unputdownable, like Fever Pitch meets The Sportswriter. I commend it in the highest terms.' - Amol RajanFrom the Sunday Times bestselling author of It's Always Summer Somewhere comes a moving and often hilarious journey through the 2024/25 FA Cup - from the first muddy preliminary round in Penrith toa glorious sunny day at Wembley. On the brink of turning 40, Felix White sets out to watch a match from every round of the Cup, meeting fans, players and dreamers at every level of the English game. As he travels the country, football becomes a way to explore memory, identity, grief and joy. While he reflects on his own lifelong obsessions, his story becomes a unique expression of how the game communicates something vital, both literal and internal, between a child and an adult. Told with lyrical wit and heartfelt honesty, Whatever Will Be, Will Be is more than just a story about football - it's about growing up, holding on and the strange ways sport connects us all.

Finding himself on the cusp of 40, on tour and contemplating his past, Felix takes the unusual step of watching Penrith Town in the first preliminary FA Cup round against Pickering Town. It kick starts a mission that sees him visit a match in every round of that season''s Cup, taking in matches at the likes of Dulwich Hamlet, Haywards Heath, Cray Wanderers, Crawley Town, Etihad, Old Trafford and, of course, Wembley. Along the way, we meet all kinds of characters connected to the Clubs, and Felix draws out what football means to these people, how it brings their lives focus and (often misguided) hope, while he explores and re-defines what the ''magic'' of the FA Cup actually is. Touching on themes of belonging, aging, childhood, work addiction and coping with the vagaries of modern life, Whatever Will Be, Will Be will resonate with every football fan who understands what it means to give your heart to a club. It is an extremely unique document, both poignant and funny, of what going to watch football, at every level, is actually like. As the book develops into an exploration into footballs uncanny communication between childhood and adulthood, it becomes a story as much about England as it is about English football.