Watford FC's start to the season has been exceptional, but it hasn't been their best ever - you have to go back 35 years for that.

In 1982/83, Graham Taylor's side had gathered 16 points from 8 games, one better than the current crop.

The team that were fresh into the big league that year finished runners-up; it's a period that is celebrated in the latest book of the Tales from the Vicarage series, titled Rocket Men, which is now available to pre-order here.

In the summer of 1977, Graham Taylor took over as manager of Watford, a Fourth Division club unremarkable except for their rock-star owner Elton John. Within six years, Taylor had taken them into the top flight to finish as the second-best team in the land. 

Four heroes – goalkeeper Steve Sherwood, defender Ian Bolton, and strikers Ross Jenkins and Luther Blissett – played in all four divisions during that extraordinary journey. They were Taylor’s Rocket Men, the legends behind one of English football’s greatest feel-good adventures.

This sixth volume of Tales From The Vicarage contains exclusive interviews with all four and charts the Hornets’ stratospheric rise through the divisions.

With a foreword from John Barnes, who played his own part in the journey, Rocket Men is another fascinating collection for Watford supporters’ bookshelves.

In the coming weeks, the Watford Observer will feature extracts from the new book around its launch at Watford Palace Theatre on November 12th, the latest Tales from the Vicarage Live event which sold out in record time.