Burning cows at Carlisle, Meeting Ernie Wise in Leeds, Joking with Gazza in Glasgow, Bribing Match Stewards in Birmingham, a standing ovation at Doncaster and Death in Grimsby
BRIGHTON & Hove Albion FC were founded in 1901 and for all but six seasons of their 118 year existence have played their football in the lower divisions of the Football League.
A stunning new book Death in Grimsby charts one man’s passion for his far from ordinary home town club over 50 of those years.
Among 50,000 words and 115 images Death in Grimsby is a collection of personal stories which will resonate with every football supporter, no matter which club they may follow.
“I have been following my beloved Brighton & Hove Albion since I was a very small kid, and like a fan of any club, whether that be Arsenal, Accrington Stanley, Aston Villa or Alloa Athletic, once you are hooked you are well and truly hooked,” explains author Nic Outterside.
“My passion was conceived on a sunny Saturday afternoon in September 1967 when I was just 11 years old, as I stood wide-eyed at the front of the North Stand of the Goldstone Ground watching these huge men battle for a crisp, white football on the green turf before me.
“It is a passion which has never dimmed with greying hair, crows’ feet etched lines and a free bus pass just three years away.”
Death in Grimsby is a collection of short stories which charts the first 50 years that Nic supported his beloved Albion, starting with that first game at the Goldstone in 1967 and finishing with a match against Wolves at Molineux in April 2017, when his club all but mathematically secured promotion to the promised land of the Premier League.
Each chapter is a separate story related to 21 different matches and events, including Nic’s first night game against Portsmouth in 1969, a record 8-2 defeat against Bristol Rovers in 1973, winning promotion to the old League Division One in 1979, an FA Cup Final in 1983, Football League survival against Hereford United in 1997 and much more.
These are knitted together with many personal recollections such as meeting Ernie Wise in Leeds, trying to explain the Foot and Mouth Disease funeral pyres to his young daughters before a match against Carlisle United in 2001, interviewing the England legend Paul Gascoigne, bribing match stewards with slices of home-made flapjack at Birmingham City and being hospitalised with hypothermia after a game at Grimsby.
“I hope the reader finds something to inspire them, laugh at, wince with or cry… and recapture their own memories of a game which as the great Bill Shankly said: “Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it’s much more serious than that,”” adds Nic.
Death in Grimsby – 50 Years Following Brighton & Hove Albion is available in paperback from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1095979752/
£10.49 Large Format paperback with FREE UK delivery
Other ways to order and purchase the book will be announced in June 2019.
The full launch with book signings will take place at venues (TBC) in Brighton and Hove during week beginning 5 August prior to the start of the 2019/20 Premier League season.
A Kindle e-book edition of the book will also be available later in the summer of 2019.
Notes:
- Nic Outterside is an award-winning editor, journalist and author. Among more than a dozen awards to his name are North of England Daily Journalist of the Year, Scottish Weekly Journalist of the Year, Scottish Daily Journalist of the Year and a special national award for investigative journalism. He was twice editor of Weekly Newspaper of the Year. In 2016 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in written journalism.
- Death in Grimsby is his seventh published book.
- For interviews or further information Nic can be contacted by email on seagullnic@gmail.com
No Time to Think 