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In his latest book, Hunter Davies looks at the history of well-used words and phrases in football. ‘Moving the goalposts’ was taken literally in 1977 when the Tartan Army invaded Wembley’s hallowed turf after beating England 2-1. Illustrations from The Bumper Book of Football. |
The ghost who wants to revive those bumper football annuals
Ghostwriter Hunter Davies who has been Gazza and Wayne Rooney, John Prescott, the Beatles and even (almost) Cherie Blair, tells Dan Carrier about his latest project
THE BUMPER BOOK OF FOOTBALL.
By Hunter Davies. Quercus Publishing £19.99
RUMOUR has it that the leading man in Robert Harris’s new novel, The Ghost, is based on Hunter Davies. The story is about a man employed to write the biography of the Prime Minster’s wife and he has, according to critics, similarities to the Dartmouth Park-based author, known for ghostwriting.
Hunter approached Cherie Blair a few years ago and asked if he could write her story. They discussed it but it came to nothing – the former PM’s wife is now doing it herself, and reportedly trousering £1m for her time.
Hunter’s biographies are wide ranging, from heavyweight topics such as William Wordsworth, to the unique – the story of the Cumbrian fell walker, Alfred Wainwright – and even the odd, such as his book tracing the history of Eddie Stobart’s trucking empire.
So is it true that he has unwittingly become the central character in a new novel?
“I am flattered if it’s the case and he did use me as a model for his story, but I just do not know,” says Hunter.
Ghostwriting is an art in itself, he says. He is currently working on the memoirs of political bruiser John Prescott and is spending time visiting John at his Hull home.
Hunter was chosen after the former Deputy Prime Minster read his ghost-written biography of Spurs hero Gazza.
“John said he liked it,” reveals Hunter, before adding: “It sold well.”
Perhaps Prescott’s story is the most interesting of the players in the New Labour project – he was the conference tub-thumper who kept old Labourites on the same side as those who mistook mushy peas for guacamole.
And Hunter has the experience to spot a winning tale – after hearing Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles in the mid-60s, he rang them up and proposed a biography. They agreed and his book is still the seminal work on the story of the Fab Four.
Hunter believes there are similarities between Prescott and Paul Gascoigne.
“Prescott is a little like Gazza – a great talker,” reveals Hunter. “The stories just pour out.”
It is not always like this for the ghostwriter, and offers a different challenge from say, Wayne Rooney, who Hunter has also penned for.
“Wayne was harder,” he admits. “I had to drag things out of him. It wasn’t because he was shy or didn’t have anything to say.
“Wayne told me everything – about the prostitutes, the lot – but he was just so young. He just did not have the experience of life Gazza had, and often did not know where to start.”
Telling the story of a celebrity is not an easy task, according to Hunter.
“You have to be a ventriloquist,” he says. “You have to take on the tone and voice of that person. But you have to strike the right note – people have to say when they read it, oh, that’s Gazza. You have to go along with the public’s image of the person you are writing about.”
Ghost-written football biographies have been around for years – Hunter recalls reading as a child the Len Shackleton and Stanley Matthews versions. But they have changed with the game – something which is the subject of his latest book, an old-style football annual that harks back to the football books of the 1930s and 1940s he enjoyed as a child.
He struck on the idea when he compared today’s football magazines with those of his youth: they are light in content, due, he believes, to the short
attention span of the
computer generation.
“Football magazines these days are full of one line bits of information, but there is nothing to get your teeth into,” he bemoans.
“Children these days seem to have attention spans of three seconds.
“My book is a kind of throwback to the Topical Times and Charlie Buchanan’s books I loved when I was younger. They were full of famous players, great goals, incidents and games. I wanted to recreate that for the modern fan.”
He has included items that were the staple of the annual. One chapter explains how to be a footballer. In the past, the annual would feature a professional demonstrating skills – how to trap and pass, how to head, how to perform the perfect block tackle.
Hunter has included information about how to become a professional – who to contact, the difference between schools of excellence and academies.
“I explain how this system works and how to get on these courses,” he says.
Other vignettes include a history of the women’s game, a section on the new Wembley (“absolutely fantastic,”) and another piece on the incredible rise of Gretna Football Club, who made it into the Scottish Premiership this term.
As a veteran of a scratch team that played on the Heath each Sunday called Dartmouth Park United and originally from Carlisle, which is not a million miles from the town, he is thrilled by their rise.
“Do you know,” he asks, “that Gretna is about the same size of Dartmouth Park? There are about 1,000 people who live there. It’s amazing what they have done.” Stuff of Boys Own Christmas annual, in fact.
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