I’ve been looking closely at Norwich City handbooks over the last few weeks.
I wanted to compile and share this definitive list of all of the handbooks that have been published over the years.
I’m thankful to the Norwich City Football Club Historical Trust for their help in verifying and adding to this work.
First Norwich City handbooks
The first Norwich City handbook was published for the 1905/06 season. This was the first season that the club regularly issued match day programmes too.
The club then produced an annual handbook every season up to and including the 1914/15 season.
There were no handbooks for the 1915/16, 1916/17, 1917/18 and 1918/19 seasons because of the 1st World War.
During this time, Norwich City had also experienced financial difficulties and had been dissolved before being reformed in time for the 1919/20 season.
Handbooks were then issued for each season from 1919/20 up to and including the 1939/40 season.
There were no handbooks during the 2nd World War.
Handbooks were available again from the 1946/47 season and continued annually up to and including the 1974/75 season with the exceptions that there were no handbooks published for the 1957/58, 1958/59 and 1965/66 seasons.
Then, there was a 14 season break before a handbook returned for the 1989/90 season. The club continued to issue annual handbooks for each season up to and including the 2005/06 season.
For the 2006/07 season, the club issued a handbook combined with the programme for the pre-season friendly with Northampton Town (29 July 2006).
For the 2007/08 season, there was no handbook. Instead, an official summer magazine called “All Yellow” was issued in August 2007. This provided numerous articles and the results from the 2006/07 season along with the fixtures for 2007/08.
The “All Yellow” magazine was issued again for the 2008/09 season. This time it included the programme for the pre-season friendly against Tottenham Hotspur (28 July 2008). Previous season results and new season fixtures were included.
A “Canary Preview” magazine replaced “All Yellow” for the 2009/10 season. It included the programme for the pre-season friendly against a Manchester United XI (25 July 2009). As well as many articles it had fixtures, player profiles and details of the other clubs City would face in League Division One. The magazine was published by Archant in association with Norwich City Football Club.
The “Canary Preview” magazine was issued again at the start of the 2010/11 season. As before it was published by Archant in association with Norwich City Football Club with a selection of articles, player profiles and guide to the clubs the Canaries would play in the Championship.
There was no handbook or magazine issued for the 2011/12 or 2012/13 season.
Handbook combined with a pre-season programme
For the next 4 seasons, the handbook was combined with a pre-season programme. The Handbook would be on the back of the programme but you would need to turn it upside down to read it:
- 2013/14 handbook combined with the programme for the friendly against Real Sociedad (6 August 2013)
- 2014/15 handbook combined with the programme for the pre-season friendly against Celta Vigo (1 August 2014)
- 2015/16 handbook combined with the programme for the friendly against Brentford (1 August 2015)
- 2016/17 handbook combined with the programme for the friendly against Hannover 96 (30 July 2016).
There have been no further handbooks published since.
List of Norwich City handbooks published
- 1905/06
- 1906/07
- 1907/08
- 1908/09
- 1909/10
- 1910/11
- 1911/12
- 1912/13
- 1913/14
- 1914/15
- 1919/20
- 1920/21
- 1921/22
- 1922/23
- 1923/24
- 1924/25
- 1925/26
- 1926/27
- 1927/28
- 1928/29
- 1929/30
- 1930/31
- 1931/32
- 1932/33
- 1933/34
- 1934/35
- 1935/36
- 1936/37
- 1937/38
- 1938/39
- 1946/47
- 1947/48
- 1948/49
- 1949/50
- 1950/51
- 1951/52
- 1952/53
- 1953/54
- 1954/55
- 1955/56
- 1956/57
- 1959/60
- 1960/61
- 1961/62
- 1962/63
- 1963/64
- 1964/65
- 1966/67
- 1967/68
- 1968/69
- 1969/70
- 1970/71
- 1971/72
- 1972/73
- 1973/74
- 1974/75
- 1989/90
- 1990/91
- 1991/92
- 1992/93
- 1993/94
- 1994/95
- 1995/96
- 1996/97
- 1997/98
- 1998/99
- 1999/00
- 2000/01
- 2001/02
- 2002/03
- 2003/04
- 2004/05
- 2005/06
- 2006/07 (combined with pre-season programme)
- 2013/14 (combined with pre-season programme)
- 2014/15 (combined with pre-season programme)
- 2015/16 (combined with pre-season programme)
- 2016/17 (combined with pre-season programme).
Example handbook covers
You can see examples of the covers of many of the Norwich City handbooks issued from 1905/06 onwards here.