The 1953 FA Cup Final between Blackpool and Bolton Wanderers had everything: seven goals, a dramatic comeback and, in Stanley Matthews, a fairytale hero. Sixty years on, this legendary game has come to represent a golden age - the year when Queen Elizabeth II was crowned and a British expedition conquered Everest. The Great English Final looks at the cultural importance of the match as Britain broke free from post-war austerity, with pre-Coronation television sales taking the Cup Final into more homes than ever before. In 1953, Britain clung to the old-fashioned values epitomised by Matthews while bracing itself for a new consumer-driven age under its young monarch. Football was on the threshold of similar change. Five months later, the England team would be torn apart by Hungary and the national game would never be the same again. Yet the 1953 FA Cup Final would live forever.

David Tossell is the author of ten books, four of which have been short-listed in the British Sports Book Awards: Bertie Mee (best biography), Grovel! and Tony Greig (best cricket book), and Nobody Beats Us (best rugby book). A sports journalist for more than three decades, David is currently head of European Public Affairs for the NFL.