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...

C is for coaches. Foul and Fair, on one level, is about football coaches; it’s about Kieran and James, about the clash of two footballing philosophies, the desire to win versus the importance of giving everyone the chance to play. After seven years running a team for West Moors YFC, I now divi...

Geoff Mann used to be the lead singer with 80s neo-prog rockers Twelfth Night. I saw them play the Marquee Club in London – one of my earliest gigs – although not until after Mann’s departure from the line up. It seems that he had grown tired of fronting a less-than commercial band...

B is for Birnham. Hayley Birnham saved Foul and Fair. The original version of the story, which went through several drafts and got as far as me sending it out (unsuccessfully) on submission, featured James but no Hayley. The whole novel was told with him as the lead character, with no digressions fr...