Well pillow cases then. Remember that? Pillow cases full of lovely things. Then we'd broken all of it by boxing day.
What a fabulous book. I love the way you've written it -- letting those associated with the club speak for themselves. I haven't actually got to the 'Decade' in question yet, but the historical parts are wonderful. I adore the different picture you get of Billy Whitehurst and the way his love for the club and the city shines through. But how deluded is Mark Hateley? He seems on a different planet to the rest. One person missing so far (unless I missed it) is Tony Norman. Apologies if this has already been dealt with, but I'm interested why no quotes from him. That's just a teeny point though -- I'm sure you're very proud of it, and rightly so. Absolutely fantastic book.
Thank you tigermaul. So happy you enjoyed it. Big Billy was fantastic to chat to, and I'm glad his genuine love of Hull City and the city of Hull shine through. And yes, Mark Hateley is deluded. He was actually really nice bloke to chat to - not what I was expecting. And there are a handful of mitigating factors that work in his favour (I don't think any manager would have made things work under Lloyd/Wilby/Appleton). But when he talked about the great job he'd been doing - while the club was adrift at the bottom of the fourth tier - it was hard not to let out a little chuckle. With Tony Norman, it is a regret of mine that I couldn't get him. I made friends with him on Facebook and sent him numerous messages requesting an interview, all of which went unanswered. I managed to get in touch with some guy who he runs a goalkeeping academy with too, who promised to get a message to him. Still nothing. Tony was a huge early hero of mine so I was desperate to talk to him. I do know he's been in ill health a lot in recent years, so I didn't want to be too gung ho or pester him too much, but I tried everything I could. With regards to missing interviewees, Jan Molby was the most annoying with regards to the 'completion' of the book, and I'd have loved Jay-Jay and Daniel Cousin, but on a personal level not getting Tony was the most disappointing one for me. That said, I got way more interviewees in the end than I ever thought I'd get. Thank you for the message anyway. Hope you enjoy the rest of the book just as much.
I'm sure I will, Richard. The Tony Norman thing wasn't meant as a criticism -- I was just interested. You've done amazingly well to get so many people to cooperate and it must have been a huge amount of work for you. Perhaps one of the other players will send a copy to Tony and he might get in touch and you could include in a second edition - you never know. I was at that Burnley game where there were the three sets of fans and we had to win 3-0. Great evening but so disappointing, but nice to have the players' insights. I think Sheff Utd had set it up by beating Bolton a few days before. I went to that game too to try to shout abuse at Edwards. It probably worked the other way - I think he scored. Interesting too that Keith Edwards mentions when he threw a tantrum when Smith subbed him. I think that was Brentford at home (0-0?). After Keith threw his shirt at the dugout in disgust, I wrote to the club and asked if I could buy the apparently unwanted garment if I bought a season ticket for the rest of the season too. A number 9 Adidas striped shirt duly arrived and the deal was done. I still have it today. Whether it's Keith's rejected one or not, I've no idea -- it's certainly tight!
I didn't take it as criticism! And that's a great story. With Keith, I tried not to let myself go into any interview with any preset opinions of the players. As it was, most of the 80s guys were as you'd expect: Big Billy was rough, funny and came across as having a heart of gold; Jobbo was cool, calm and collected in real life; Skip and Garreth were whole-hearted, passionate and knowledgable. With Keith I was expecting a clinical, cold-eyed assassin-style personality, so it took me aback when he spent the first 10 minutes or so of our interview telling me how delighted he was that ITV had brought Cold Feet back before going on to explain in great detail what had happened to all the characters during the show's hiatus. He wasn't what I expected - in a nice way. I'd cherish that shirt though. Let's pretend it was that one. As for a second volume, I'll see. There are a handful of errors in there that could do to be ironed out. A lot of people have shelled out a lot of money for the book though, and in my mind, if I were to release a 'better' version any time soon I'd be being a bit disrespectful to all those who have bought it (and it aint cheap!). Maybe for the 10-year anniversary. By which time I'll have finished my book about cricket.
I’ll just come out and say it Rich , nobody wants a book about Cricket - just crack on with the updated version
Ha! I might make some money off this one if it takes off! Cricket books sell stupidly well. Given this unyielding pressure, I may try to conduct a handful of interviews is the opportunity presents itself to include in a later version.
You could do two versions -- a complete second edition (ie the full updated book), and a separate cheaper 'addendum' with just the new stuff for cheapskates. What we're all really waiting for is a separate tome. 'The Allams - My Part in Their Downfall'.
As I've said elsewhere, anything dealing with the Allam years will need a publishing house behind it, as the legal/insurance costs will be beyond most independent publishers. There's a great book in there, obviously. It's just a bit of a libel minefield.
Publishing houses always make the author liable for libels anyway. But truth and fair comment would be pretty good defences.
True, but they can be useful on thorough libel checks and insurance fees. Fair comment is a very useful defence to have to hand, but it doesn't necessarily stop people making your life as difficult as possible. And if they are rich (and you aren't) then your life quickly becomes very, very difficult.
All very early yet, but had a bit of interest. It is basically listing England's best Test innings from 0 to 99 and writing them up. So Jack Leach's 1 not out against the Aussies last summer would be the entry for 1, and so on. It may never happen but I'm having fun researching it.
Most of them are still being researched, but at the moment Monty Panesar's match-saving 2 not out in New Zealand while partnering Matt Prior is a leading contender. There's a lot of pre-war stuff to go back through though.