Neil Atkinson

British journalist (born 1981)

Neil Atkinson (born 21 January 1981) is a Liverpool-based writer, broadcaster and film producer.[1][2] He is the host,[3] Content Manager,[4] and one of the main writers and business developers[5] behind online football and culture magazine The Anfield Wrap[6] which has had more than 28 million podcast downloads worldwide. Atkinson has presented sell-out shows of The Anfield Wrap in London, New York, Toronto, Melbourne, Ireland and Scandinavia, as well as on stage at the Sound City Festival in Liverpool.[7][8][9][10] Atkinson co-wrote and co-produced[11] the film Native, which had a theatrical release in the UK in 2018 and won the feature film award at the 2016 Boston science fiction festival.[12] Described as "smart" and "elegant" by Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian.[13] Kim Newman in Empire magazine described it as "ambitious, unusual and thought-provoking".[14] In The Times, Ed Potton wrote that it was a "script full of promise, with provocative things to say about empathy, obedience and individualism".[15]

Atkinson is a regular Radio City Talk presenter and won the Football Supporters Federation 2016 national radio show award.[16] He runs his own Liverpool-based production company, Film1st, and hosts music podcast The Rider.[17] Atkinson has guested as a punter on The Totally Football Show discussing Liverpool Football Club's 2019–20 Premier League title triumph,[18] and Liverpool's 5–0 win at Old Trafford over Manchester United on 24 October 2021.[19]

Formerly a chairman for Spirit of Shankly,[20] he has contributed to New Statesman discussing the social impact of tragedies[21][22] and has appeared on BBC Breakfast, Football Focus, BBC Radio 5 Live, BT Sport and Sky Sports, during which former Manchester United defender Gary Neville described Atkinson as "a better pundit than me".[23]

He co-wrote the 2014 book Make Us Dream with John Gibbons about the 2013–14 Liverpool F.C. season[24] as well as Numero 6 in 2019, about Liverpool’s 2018–19 season culminating in their 2019 UEFA Champions League Final victory, their sixth European Cup triumph.[25] In August 2019 with Michael MacCambridge Atkinson began Red Letters, a weekly correspondence about the Liverpool Football Club for the Liverpool Echo’s American website, which is being edited into a book.[26] Atkinson has also written for newspapers such as newspapers such as The Guardian, The Independent the Liverpool Echo on Liverpool FC related topics.[citation needed]

In 2024, he authored the book Transformer: Klopp, the Revolution of a Club and Culture.[27]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ LibreOffice For Starters, First Edition, Flexible Minds, Manchester, 2002, p. 18
2. ^ Conor McNamara (7 December 2015). "Neil Atkinson acceptance speech at The FSF Awards" - via YouTube.
3. ^ "Contributors – The Anfield Wrap".
4. ^ "This UK podcast is making money – and employs 4 people". 11 March 2016.
5. ^ Development, PodBean. "Walks Of Life Podcast".
6. ^ "About The Anfield Wrap – The Anfield Wrap".
7. ^ [1][dead link]
8. ^ "TAW DOWN UNDER – The Anfield Wrap". 11 April 2013.
9. ^ "THE ANFIELD WRAP DOWN UNDER – NEW DATES ADDED – The Anfield Wrap". 19 June 2013.
10. ^ "Anfield Wrap stage set for Sound City". jmu-journalism.org.uk. 22 March 2013.
11. ^ "Neil Atkinson". IMDb.
12. ^ "Native (2016)". IMDb.
13. ^ Bradshaw, Peter (22 February 2018). "Native review – an elegant and weird sci-fi adventure". The Guardian.
14. ^ Newman, Kim (23 February 2018). "Native". Empire.
15. ^ Potton, Ed (23 February 2018). "Film review: Native" - via www.thetimes.co.uk.
16. ^ "Philippe Coutinho wins FSF Player of the Year Award – Football Supporters' Federation". www.fsf.org.uk. Archived from the original on 30 August 2017. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
17. ^ "Kin – Neil Atkinson".
18. ^ "And now it's there".
19. ^ "The Totally Football Show with James Richardson: Three handles on Apple Podcasts".
20. ^ "From Liverpool to Dubai: How The Anfield Wrap became a global success story – FourFourTwo Arabia". www.fourfourtwoarabia.com.
21. ^ "29 years on from the Hillsborough disaster, Grenfell shows how little we've learnt". www.newstatesman.com. 9 June 2021.
22. ^ "The Hillsborough verdict isn't about football – the disaster was a national disgrace". www.newstatesman.com. 26 April 2016.
23. ^ Wrap, The Anfield (21 December 2018). ""I've kidded myself for years that we can win the league, this time we actually can." Pre-match with @Carra23 and @GNev2".
24. ^ Prentice, David (15 August 2014). "Make Us Dream book review: story of Liverpool's 2013/14 season".
25. ^ "Avalanche of f-words take away from all that's good in fans' site, The Anfield Wrap – Sports Journalists' Association". 16 August 2019.
26. ^ Atkinson, Neil; Michael MacCambridge (2 August 2019). "Red Letters/2 August 2019: Madrid Afterglow, Going Again and Carpooling with Gary Gillespie". Liverpool Echo.
27. ^ "'Winning helps' – How Klopp's leadership revolutionized Liverpool FC and Beyond". One Football. 3 October 2024. Retrieved 4 October 2024.

## External links

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* Neil Atkinson at IMDb

Authority control databases |

* VIAF

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