Alan Biggs at Large: Turbulent recent history of Sheffield Wednesday brought to book by Owls fan Tom Whitworth

Someone like lifelong fan-turned-author Tom Whitworth is entitled to real strength of feeling considering the suffering he has chronicled in his book on Sheffield Wednesday: “Through the Modern Era.”

But what makes Whitworth’s work particularly powerful is that he manages somehow to remain objective.

Complete detachment is an impossibility considering Wednesday’s fall from the Premier League heights of the 1990s and the long slow climb from near oblivion. Yet he remains remarkably clinical and non-judgmental in his analysis.

Having personally covered the entire traumatic period Whitworth describes, I enjoyed reliving it all from a relatively safe distance!

It’s not meant patronisingly to say that the book would do credit to a full-time professional writer. Well written, thorough and accurate.

Above all, after all the political turmoil of the past, there’s no angle to the book other than to tell the whole story.

Which he does with great feeling and perception.

Underlying it all is a supporter’s love for his club. And it provides a sense of perspective on what is, from the bleak background of the past, the almost laughably miniscule blip that beset a much healthier club just recently.