Within the next few weeks, my latest book – Swansea City Match of My Life – will be released.
What better time than now to share a few facts about it?
Here goes…
It’s called Match of My Life. Let’s start with the obvious one! I didn’t come up with the title as it is part of Pitch Publishing’s popular Match of My Life series. The book features 16 chapters and each chapter is based on an exclusive interview with a Swansea City player past or present, where they discuss their favourite game in a Swans shirt. You get a behind the scenes look at some of the club’s most important games – the friendships, the tears, the fights, the goals and the glory – as told by the men who created these moments.
It took nine months to write. A lot of that was spent tracking down the players, arranging interviews, making follow-up calls (a few follow-up meetings too), transcribing interviews, and – of course – writing the book itself. Of course, this was all done in between my day-to-day freelance writing jobs.
It was completed in February 2018. This was before Swansea were relegated from the Premier League, meaning a few chapters still have reference to the Swans currently being in the top flight. There was no reason to amend these sections as it reflects what the players felt at the time, so I have left them in. Who knows, maybe the Swans will be back there in a few seasons!
In total I interviewed 16 players. In the order that I interviewed them, the players who contributed their stories to the book were: Mel Nurse, Leighton James, Alan Curtis, Wyndham Evans, Roger Freestone, Alan Tate, Vic Gomersall, John Toshack, Matthew Bound, James Thomas, Dai Gwyther, Michael Howard, Lee Trundle, John Cornforth, Leon Britton and Nathan Dyer.
They were all great guys. I couldn’t pick a favourite player as they were all top class in their own way, taking time out of their busy lives to speak with me and share their stories.
The forward was written by John Hartson. What a legend and a big Swans fan. John was a lovely guy to speak with and he contributed some Swans stories of his own to the book, which just enhance an already great read (if I say so myself…)!
The book will be available everywhere. As with my previous two, Match of My Life will be available online as well as in store in Waterstones, HMV, WHSmiths, independent bookstores and the rest. It should also be available in the Swansea City club shops. Pitch Publishing are great when it comes to getting it seen, so you should have no trouble finding a copy.
The stories are awesome. Such as Mel Nurse recalling the build-up to his debut match in 1956; John Toshack’s 1981 squad selection headache; Wyndham Evans tackling his childhood hero; Leon Britton sharing his tales of the South Wales derby; and John Cornforth remembering the moment he was left in his pants at Membury services.
But you will have to wait until the end of the month to read them all!
Remember, you can still pre-order Swansea City Match of My Life