The book has been available for eager early adopters for a few weeks now, but last night was the official launch for Foul and Fair, at one of Bournemouth’s fabulous independent bookshops, The Westbourne Bookshop.

I was delighted with the turn-out, which included people from the local writing, footballing and music communities, as well as lots of old friends. Best of all, some of the lads who I coached back in my days of running a team for West Moors YFC were there. As I said on the night, without them, the book simply wouldn’t exist.

I spoke for a bit, read a couple of extracts from the book (ducking out from recreating one character’s Portuguese accent, on threat of my family walking out if I made the attempt) and answered questions that ranged from the balance between inspiration and reality when creating my characters to what I thought about Gareth Southgate. Then I signed books and chatted, before retiring round the corner to continue the conversations with some friends in the pub. All in all, it was a great night and a lovely way to mark the arrival of Foul and Fair into the world.

I’d like to thank Anara and Anna from the bookshop for looking after me so well and for making sure that everything ran so smoothly. Thanks too to everyone who came along. If you missed it, I’m afraid there’s very little I can do to recreate the experience for you, but you can at least go out and buy the book for yourself – I’m sure that will make everything much better.