The word also started to appear in books. In the 1904 book The Adventure of the Six Napoleons, one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, he wrote, "It seemed to be one of those senseless acts of Hooliganism which occur from time to time, and it was reported to the constable on the beat as such".

In Tono-Bungay, the 1909, semi-autobiographical novel by H. G. Wells, he wrote, "Three energetic young men of the hooligan type, in neck-wraps and caps, were packing wooden cases with papered-up bottles, amidst much straw and confusion".