James Riordan

James Riordan (10 October 1936 – 11 February 2012) was an English novelist, broadcaster, sports historian, and Russian scholar.

He was 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 USSR, playing for FC Spartak Moscow in 1963. There are, however, no documents, match reports or eyewitness accounts that support his claim, and many details in the story were inaccurate.

Life and career Born in Portsmouth in 1936, James Riordan learned to speak Russian during National Service training in the Royal Air Force from 1955 to 1957. 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 party higher school in Moscow; he was an avowed Communist and was one of the few English students at the school.

His autobiography Comrade Jim: The Spy Who Played for Spartak, published in 2008, includes an account of his games for Spartak Moscow; some Russian commentators have questioned these claims.

When he returned to England, he became lecturer at Bradford University before moving on to the University of Surrey at Guildford where he became head of the Russian Department and was awarded a personal professorship. In 1980, he was the Olympic attaché for the British Olympic Association of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. He held an honorary doctorate of Grenoble University and was President (2003-5) and later Fellow of the European Committee for Sports History.

His 2008 novel The Sniper tells the story of Soviet sniper Tania Chernova and is based on Riordan's interviews with the subject.

He has also made a study of "The Death Match" — the 1943 non-official association football match between Soviet POWs and soldiers of the Wehrmacht — and has written a scholarly article and a children's novel, Match of Death, on the subject.

Selected bibliography

Autobiography Comrade Jim: The Spy Who Played for Spartak (Harper Perennial, 2009).

Non-fiction Sport in Soviet Society: Development of Sport and Physical Education in Russia and the USSR (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1977). European Cultures of Sport (Intellect, 2001).

Children's novels The Secret Castle (Silver Burdett, 1980) Sweet Clarinet (Oxford University Press, 1998). The Prisoner (Oxford University Press, 1999). When the Guns Fall Silent (Oxford University Press, 2000). War Song (Oxford University Press, 2001). Match of Death (Oxford University Press, 2002). The Gift (Oxford University Press, 2004). Escape from War (Kingfisher, 2005). Rebel Cargo (Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2007). The Sniper (Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2008). Blood Runner (Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2011).

Children's anthologies Mistress of the Copper Mountain: Folk Tales from the Urals (Muller, 1974). Tales from Central Russia: Russian Tales (Kestrel, 1976). Illustrated by Krystyna Turska. Tales from Tartary: Russian Takes Volume Two (Kestrel, 1978). Illustrated by Anthony Colbert. Tales of King Arthur (Hamlyn, 1982). Illustrated by Victor Ambrus. The Woman in the Moon and Other Tales of Forgotten Heroines (Hutchinson, 1985). Illustrated by Angela Barrett. Russian Gypsy Tales (Interlink Books, 1985). An Illustrated Treasury of Fairy and Folk Tales (Hamlyn, 1986). The Wild Swans (Hutchinson, 1987). Illustrated by Helen Stratton. Folk-tales of the British Isles (Raduga Publishers, 1987) The Sun Maiden and the Crescent Moon: Siberian Folk Tales (Interlink, 1989). The Barefoot Book of Stories from the Sea (Barefoot Books Ltd., 1996). Illustrated by Amanda Hall. The Twelve Labours of Hercules (Frances Lincoln, 1998). Illustrated by Christina Balit. The Storytelling Star: Tales of the Sun, the Moon and the Stars (Pavilion Books Limited, 1999). Illustrated by Amanda Hall. The Young Oxford Book of Football Stories (Oxford University Press, 2000). Russian Folk-Tales (Oxford University Press, 2000). Illustrated by Andrew Breakspear.

As editor Kon, Igor & Riordan, James (eds.). Sex and Russian Society. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993. Riordan, James (ed.). Sport under Communism. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1978. . Riordan, James & Krüger, Arnd (eds.). The international politics of sport in the twentieth century. London: Routledge, 1999. James Riordan & Krüger, Arnd (eds.). European cultures of sport: examining the nations and regions. Bristol: Intellect, 2003. Krüger, Arnd & Riordan, James (eds). The story of worker sport. Champaign, Ill.: Human Kinetics, 1996.

As translator Chinghiz Aitmatov. Jamilia. London: Telegram Books, 2007. Anton Chekhov. Boys. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1979.

Literary awards Riordan's first novel Sweet Clarinet won the NASEN Award, and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Children's Book Award. Match of Death won the South Lanarkshire Book Award. The Gift was also shortlisted for the NASEN Award.