The range of voices and narratives ensure there is something for everyone to read, reflect on and enjoy, with that quintessential sense of community and cohesion coming across most vividly in the likes of ‘The Godmother of Elthorne Estate: Celia Facey, Islington and Arsenal and the Community’ – a portrait of a volunteer’s invaluable contribution to Arsenal’s success off the pitch. Elsewhere, Matthew Joseph’s ‘Coming Full Circle’ is a compelling account of a former academy player returning to the club as a coach, with so much changed, yet so much still remaining the same. 

As well as the positive recollections, there are difficult conversations aired in the book, including the continued dearth of Black managers and coaches, the lack of diversity in Arsenal Women’s team, and, of course, the abhorrent scourge of racism. On this final subject James McNicholas’s essay ‘Starboy: Bukayo Saka as Digital Culture’ is a powerful reminder of the challenges still to be overcome. 

In a volume so engaged with substance, nonetheless it doesn’t neglect style with its strong visual messaging; not least in the red, white and black of the cover offsetting the powerful image of Ian Wright raising a fist to the sky. Inside, the book is beautifully packaged with incredible thought and care having clearly gone into the design, creating a harmonious whole that represents the book’s wider mission to express Arsenal’s connection to Black cultural identity in its totality. 

Indeed, Black Arsenal works on every level, and while in the preface, the editors describe the volume as “an exploration, rather than a celebration of Arsenal and Black culture”, there is, without doubt, much to celebrate both in the content and context of this seminal collection.