F is for Football, which has an endless capacity for providing the kind of real-life storylines which a writer would think twice about making up. F is also Fulham, my team and one with an important but under-the-radar role in Foul and Fair.

Authors are often asked where they get their characters&rsq...

Every now and then I come across someone of my age on social media complaining about how shallow and trite modern lyrics are compared to ‘proper music’ from back in our day. Leaving apart that such complaints ignore our day's fair share of shallow and trite – Bay City Rollers, anyo...

E is for English Teacher

I chose to make James, the main character of Foul and Fair an English teacher, albeit one who is no longer working at a school when we meet him, for a number of reasons. I liked the idea of him drawing on works of literature in his team talks, not least for the incongruity o...

One of the great pleasures of starting to read a new book is the sense of wide-open possibility. I always read those first few sentences, first few paragraphs, in a state of high alert. I’m constantly looking for information to help make sense of the new world I’m taking my first steps i...

D is for dirty tricks and dodgy deeds.

James and Kieran, the two rival football managers in Foul and Fair, go above and beyond (or should that be below and beneath?) in the range of dirty tricks they employ. Although some adults involved in kids’ football get too focused on winning as the be-a...