The Ghost of White Hart Lane, by Rob White and Julie Welch

He stands outside Tottenham Hotspur's stadium in the autumn sunshine smiling at the camera, seemingly confident but not cocksure. He is wearing the Scotland blazer he earned on his international debut a few months earlier. It is 1959, he is 22 years old, and Spurs manager Bill Nicholson has just bought him for £20,000 from Falkirk.

The photo of John White, reproduced in this immensely readable biography-cum-memoir, shows a footballer about to make his mark on history, though he would have had no idea he was to blossom into the creative midfield fulcrum of a side who would achieve imperishable fame by doing the Double in 1960-61 and, two years later, becoming the first British team to win a major European trophy. But by 1964 many of the Double heroes were showing their age.

Nicholson planned to rebuild a side around White and Jimmy Greaves. Then on 21 July 1964 White was killed, struck by lightning while playing golf having unwisely sheltered under a tree as a storm blew up.

His son Rob was six months old, and while the ever-excellent Julie Welch provides the book's narrative drive, calling as witnesses White's widow Sandra, the survivors of the Double team and journalists of the day, Rob White contributes poignant chapters recounting his search for the father he never knew.

A picture emerges of an immensely likeable, shy man with a love of practical jokes, and a genius on the pitch with the ability to pop up unexpectedly with telling effect, hence his nickname of "The Ghost".

A special book about a special man, it will appeal not merely to Spurs fans but to anyone who appreciates what Danny Blanchflower, Tottenham's inspirational captain of the time, called "the rapture of the game".

Published in hardback by Yellow Jersey, £16.99