A Dangerous Game of Football |
A Dangerous Game of Football is available at WH Smith, Waterstones and all good bookshops now.
Front Cover.
‘How can a game of football be dangerous?
Jack Burnside is about to find out … ‘
Jack, who shares his name with the soccer superstar, Jack Burnside, is a keen footballer. When his best mate, Saleem, fails to return after a visit home, there is little Jack can do about it, until he receives a mysterious parcel in the post. It takes him on a journey to a land ruled by sun and peopled with tyrants, sorcerers and giant crows.
Now he must find Saleem, coach a team of boys for a football match – and stay alive!
… which just might prove rather difficult if your only ally is a cantankerous camel.
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All books have to start somewhere. This one began a few years back, when David Beckham was captain of the England football team. Dare I admit it? I’m a huge fan.
I’m usually too busy to watch an entire football match, although whenever David was playing I’d sneak in to have a look. He was the most amazing footballer and the way he scored from a free kick – absolutely incredible!
Where I live, so many youngsters wanted to be like him, copying his hairstyles and clothes. I’d be watching my granddaughter learning to play tennis, and look over at the Saturday football club, training in the sports ground. There, most of the boys sported an identical hairstyle to David, shaved as close as possible, with a single earring.
That’s when I got the idea for my story about a thirteen year old boy, who happens to be very good at football, has the same name as the great soccer superstar, Jack Burnside, (that’s as close as I could get to Beckham) and is desperate to be like him.
The only problem for my hero, Jack, is that imitating the superstar lands him in a heap of trouble!
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From the Author
I was brought up in Birmingham and one of my earliest memories is being taken by my father, a keen footballer, to watch Aston Villa play. Of course, I don’t remember anything about it except there was a lot of noise and men kicking a ball about! But, in writing stories, memories often float up to the surface and, when writing about Jack Burnside playing football with his friends, the word – Aston Villa – just popped off the end of my pen.
My primary school was Church Road in Yardley and, later on, my sisters and I attended, King Edwards VI School, Camp Hill, which was located in Bordesley before moving to Kings Heath in 1957. (At that time it was a separate school for boys and girls and we were always getting detentions for chatting to the boys on the other side of the wall). At that time Bordesley was a big industrial area, full of smoke black factories. One of my earliest memories is riding with my father, somewhere in the backstreets of Birmingham, and seeing barefooted children waiting outside the pubs for their parents.
I suppose no one had much money in those days. And nothing cost much either; the pictures (as we called the movies in those days) cost 1s 9d for the best seats in the circle, (which is less than 10p today).
Near where I lived was a Smiths Crisps factory. They used to sell off the broken crisps at a penny a bag. Inside was a blue twist of paper for the salt. And the fish and chips were wrapped in newspaper. And no, the print never came off – not in those days.
I haven't been back to Birmingham since I was eighteen. I guess I need a magic camel to whisk me off, so I can see all the changes that have taken place since I left.
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