David Peace: “There aren’t enough working class stories around”

David Peace has spent three decades writing about the dark history of England from a safe distance.

His work has been dubbed “ Dewsbury Noir ” thanks to his focus on historic, violent crimes in working-class Northern towns.

Peace’s most commercially successful novel, The Damned United , was published in 2006 , and adapted into a film starring Michael Sheen and Timothy Spall in 2009 .

His latest novel, Munichs , tackles one of the biggest sporting tragedies in British history: in 1958 , a plane carrying (among other passengers) the Manchester United football team crashed on take-off.

Munichs focuses on a national trauma that is retold from the perspectives of multiple characters.

The contrasting voices in Munichs are clash in their recollections of key events.

Peace believes the disaster was “a turning point the end of football that defined the period before” The novel does not shy away from the criticism Manchester United faced at the time that it was surfing on sympathy”.