Daniel Wright’s Northern Monkeys is a gritty debut novel set in Bradford that pulls no punches about life on and off the football terraces. At its centre is The Ointment, a football firm whose pride and reputation are everything – until the consequences start to bite. Around the match day confrontations, Wright threads the real battles his characters face such as addiction, poverty, fractured families, love, revenge, and the relentless pressure of the police closing in.
With themes of loyalty, identity, and violence, all centred around football, it’s a story about how a tight-knit group of lads hold each other up, and sometimes pull each other under. It’s a book that doesn’t just tell you a story about these lads, it puts you right there in the middle of them.
While the book may technically be a work of fiction, it is loosely based on Wright’s own life story and his connection with the Ointment, which is also a real life football firm that still exists to this day. In terms of authenticity then, it’s about as close as you can get.
I have written about football firms on this site in the past. It’s a subject that seems to come up time and time again in the media and films, so it was great to be able to interview Daniel Wright and get to the bottom of what compelled him to write Northern Monkeys, and how he approached the process given his real life experiences.
Daniel Answers Our Questions
The book feels brutally honest. When you were writing it, were you more interested in documenting a time and place, or in exploring the psychology behind that world?
I was definitely more interested in exploring the psychology behind that world. I wanted people to understand why the lads do this – why they’re drawn to it, and why most never leave it behind.
You describe the book as “loosely based” on real events. What was the bigger challenge — deciding what real life events to include and leave out, or shaping it into a story that still works as fiction?
I never really found that a challenge, I just decided what I wanted from each chapter. Sometimes it was real life, sometimes total fiction, sometimes a mix.
The novel doesn’t glorify football hooliganism, but it captures the rush, camaraderie and code of that world. Was it difficult to balance honesty with not romanticising the violence?
Yes, I did find it hard. A lot of the characters in the firm are loosely based on people I know and love. So sometimes it was tempting to go easier on them – but I tried my best not to. I wanted to show people’s flaws, and what the cost of this life really is.
Football firms were once a big part of British football culture but have faded since the early 2000s. Do they still exist out of sight, and what do you think today’s younger fans misunderstand about that 2000s era?
Football firms are still out there – every club in the country still has one. A lot of lads are quiet now, jail and banning orders, but they’ll still pick two or three games a season that they’ll turn out. On younger lads, they’re just doing what they’ve seen generations before them do. It’s a big part of English culture that’s never gone away and never been explored properly. Lads are drawn to it, and it’s something as a society we’ve never really tried to fix.
There’s a nod to terrace fashion early in the book — Stone Island badges, Adidas trainers, that unmistakable look. What did that represent to lads in firms like The Ointmentback then?
Back then, if you dressed in casual clothing, it meant you were a hooligan – you were looking for trouble. Not like today, where you go in the ground now and everybody’s covered in Stone Island.
There’s a strong theme of working-class identity — men trying to escape dead-end jobs, poverty, or broken homes. How important was it for you to tell that side of the story rather than just the fights?
Yes, very. I wanted to show what the lads’ lives are like away from the football and the group. Some are struggling to pay bills and keep their heads above water, but others are doing really well with their own businesses, but all they ever think about is Saturday and being with the firm. I wanted to show that addiction.
Northern Monkeys is more than just a hooligan story — it’s also about loyalty, masculinity, and the need to belong. Were you consciously writing about those bigger ideas or were they a natural byproduct of the story?
Yes, I think I wrote about them both consciously now that you’ve asked me about it. Loyalty is very important in that world and these men are loyal to each other. I’m a masculine man and I often think to myself that I’ve never really felt happiness, I always have to be chasing some goal, some new achievement, or some sort of action. Then when I achieve it, I’m happy for ten minutes and all I think about is what am I going to do now? That probably comes through in my writing.
Some readers might find parts of the book hard to read because of how honest and graphic it is. Was that discomfort something you deliberately wanted the reader to feel?
Yes, I did want them to feel discomfort – but not just discomfort. I wanted them to feel everything I was writing about.
Bradford, as a city, almost feels like a character in the book — gritty, harsh, full of pride. How much, if at all, has it changed since those days?
The sad truth is I don’t think it’s changed at all. It’s still crime-ridden, still violent, still segregated. But it’s full of great people – and a place I’m enormously proud I came from. Thankfully Bradford City have got a lot better, though.
Football has changed massively in the last 20 years — it’s not as rough, we have sanitised stadiums, corporate fans, fewer local identities. Do you think something important was lost when that old culture disappeared, and could it come back?
To be honest, it’s not too bad in the lower leagues, but the game has definitely lost its way. I don’t even watch Premier League football anymore-I hate VAR, hate the way they play, the stadiums have no atmosphere. And the big clubs? They don’t want season ticket holders anymore. They want tourists who fly in once a season from another country and spend all their money in the club shop. Do I think fans can ever get it back? At the big clubs-no chance. But if you’re a young lad now, support your local. A lot more fun.
You’ve hinted on X that this is the first in a series. Will the next book pick up with the same characters, or are you planning to explore a different side of that world?
I’ve already written the second one. It will be out around the middle of next year. And good news for readers – it will start from where the last one finished. I do have other plans to branch out in that world and possibly a couple of prequels, but what books they’ll be yet remains to be seen.
Finally, Northern Monkeys feels tailor-made for a screen adaptation. Has there been any talk about a TV or film version — and who would you love to see play Wrighty?
The dream is to turn it into a TV series. I’ve written a script, but it’s very early days. On Wrighty, I’d like an unknown actor from Bradford to play him. I’d like all the actors to come from West Yorkshire if possible.
– Northern Monkeys by Daniel Wright is out now on Kindle and the paperback is released on the 28th of November