Colin Shindler (born 1949) is an English author,

social historian Social history, often called history from below, is a field of history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to co ...

and affiliated lecturer in history at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. He should not be confused with another English academic and historian, also called Colin Shindler, born in 1946, who specialises in the history of modern Israel.

Life and career

Born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, Colin Shindler grew up in Prestwich. He graduated with a degree in history from

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and ...

, where he later completed his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

thesis A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: D ...

on Hollywood and the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. Since 1998 he has been lecturing and teaching at Cambridge on films and

American history The history of the present-day United States began in roughly 15,000 BC with the arrival of Peopling of the Americas, the first people in the Americas. In the late 15th century, European colonization of the Americas, European colonization beg ...

. He has written numerous books on British and American

cultural history Cultural history records and interprets past events involving human beings through the social, cultural, and political milieu of or relating to the arts and manners that a group favors. Jacob Burckhardt (1818–1897) helped found cultural history ...

, with an emphasis on the impact of sport and film on modern society. ''Manchester United Ruined My Life'' (1998) and ''Manchester City Ruined My Life'' (2012) are a pair of memoirs about his support for

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

. He also wrote the screenplay for the 1988 film '' Buster'' and worked as a scriptwriter and

television producer A television producer is a person who oversees one or more aspects of a television show, television program. Some producers take more of an executive role, in that they conceive new programs and pitch them to the television networks, but upon acce ...

in England between 1977 and 1996, for shows including ''

Lovejoy ''Lovejoy'' is a British television comedy-drama mystery fiction, mystery series, based on the Lovejoy (novel series), novels by John Grant (Lovejoy), John Grant under the pen name Jonathan Gash. The show, which ran to 71 episodes over six ser ...

'', ''

Juliet Bravo ''Juliet Bravo'' is a television in the United Kingdom, British television police procedural drama series, first broadcast on 30 August 1980, that ran for six series and a total of 88 episodes on BBC One, BBC1. The theme of the series concerned ...

'', and '' Heartbeat''. Shindler is the brother of lawyer Geoffrey Shindler and the uncle of television producer Nicola Shindler. His daughter is the actress Amy Shindler.

Books

Nonfiction

*''Hollywood Goes to War: Films and American Society, 1939–1952'' (1979) *''Hollywood in Crisis: Cinema and American Society, 1929–1939'' (1996) *''Fathers, Sons and Football'' (2001) *''

George Best George Best (22 May 1946 – 25 November 2005) was a Northern Irish professional association football, footballer who played as a winger (association football), winger, spending most of his club career at Manchester United F.C., Manchester Un ...

and 21 Others'' (2004) *'' Garbo and Gilbert in Love: Hollywood's First Great Celebrity Couple'' (2005) *''

National Service National service is a system of compulsory or voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act ...

: From Aldershot to Aden: Tales from the Conscripts, 1946–62'' (2012) *''The Professional Amateur: The Cricketing Life of Bob Barber'' (2015) *''Four Lions: The Lives and Times of Four Captains of England'' (2016) *''Barbed Wire and Cucumber Sandwiches: The Controversial South African Tour of 1970'' (2020)

Fiction

*''Buster: A Novel Based on His Own Original Screenplay'' (1988) *''High on a Cliff'' (1999) *''First Love, Second Chance'' (2002) *''The Worst of Friends: Malcolm Allison, Joe Mercer and Manchester City'' (2009) *''The Worst of Friends: The Betrayal of Joe Mercer'' (2011)

Memoirs

*''Manchester United Ruined My Life'' (1998) *''Manchester City Ruined My Life'' (2012)

Edited

*''I'm Sure I Speak for Many Others ... : Unpublished Letters to the BBC'' (2017)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shindler, Colin 1949 births Living people 20th-century English historians 21st-century English historians 20th-century English memoirists 21st-century English memoirists 20th-century English novelists 21st-century English novelists 20th-century English screenwriters Writers from Manchester Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Academics of the University of Cambridge Cricket writers English sportswriters English television producers Academics of the Institute of Continuing Education British social historians Historians of the United States Cultural historians