Best-selling football book now available at city’s largest independent bookshop

A best-selling book about a supporter’s 50 year passion for Brighton & Hove Albion FC is now available at the city’s largest independent bookshop.

Death in Grimsby – 50 Years Following Brighton & Hove Albion which chronicles football fan Nic Outterside’s half a century supporting his beloved home town football team has already made more than 2,000 global sales via Amazon and other online outlets.

Now the book is also available exclusively in Sussex at City Books in Western Road.

Founded and run by Paul and Inge Sweetman, the shop is in the Brunswick area of the city. The shop has been shortlisted twice for the national ‘Independent Bookshop of the Year Award’ and won the Muddy Stiletto award for Best Bookshop in Sussex in 2018. Arranged over two floors, City Books has a large range of carefully selected books, including an extensive selection of books of local interest.

Early purchasers of Death in Grimsby have included several former Albion players including club legend Peter Ward and the personal backing of 1983 FA Cup Final and England hero Gary Stevens.

Nic has also received support for the book from the Albion’s former owner and chairman Dick Knight and current owner and chairman Tony Bloom.

This summer Death in Grimsby rose to number 2 in the Amazon football book sales chart.

The book is a collection of 21 short stories which charts the first 50 years that Nic supported his beloved Albion, starting with his 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.

Death in Grimsby – 50 Years Following Brighton & Hove Albion is still available as a large format paperback priced at £10.49 with FREE UK delivery from Amazon at: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1095979752/

And special personally signed editions of the book together with a FREE copy of Nic’s first ever paperback The Hill are also available at £8.99 plus P&P from Ebay at: www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=Death+in+Grimsby&_sacat=0

A Kindle e-book edition of the book is also available for £3.00 at: www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Grimsby-Following-Brighton-Albion-ebook/dp/B07T4VMJRQ/

 

Death in Grimsby – 50 Years Following Brighton & Hove Albion is now published worldwide in paperback

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:

1. 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.
2. Death in Grimsby is his seventh published book.
3. For interviews or further information Nic can be contacted by email on seagullnic@gmail.com

 

Gripping new book charts 50 years in the life of a football fanatic…

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:

WATCH THIS SPACE FOR DETAILS OF PRICE AND ORDERING/PRE-ORDERING PLUS BOOK SIGNING LAUNCH DATE

A Kindle e-book edition of the book will also be available later in the summer of 2019.

Notes:

1. 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.
2. Death in Grimsby is his seventh published book.
3. For interviews or further information Nic can be contacted by email on seagullnic@gmail.com

A day and a life following the Albion with a little help from a friend

IT was 50 years ago today Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play… and 50 years since my very first Albion game.

Lucy was in the Sky with Diamonds, but at the end of the so-called Summer of Love I was about to begin a love affair that would give me greater highs than any acid trip.

I was a wide-eyed 11-year-old kid when a neighbour in my home village of Mile Oak offered to take me to my first proper football match, at a place I had only ever seen from the top deck of a bus on the Old Shoreham Road.

David Knott was 32, and as an Albion nut he seemed cursed to have a daughter who hated football. So I became his Saturday surrogate son, at least for the purposes of having someone to take to matches at the Goldstone Ground.

My first Albion game was on a bright and sunny Saturday, 2 September 1967; and it was a trip into dreamland as I witnessed a 1-0 home win against Bury in front of a bustling 13,413 crowd.

I stood with David near the front right of the North Stand and watched in awe as these 22 men battled it out on the sun-kissed grass.

I soaked it all in, including the fact that Bury were captained by Scottish international Bobby Collins, who was hard in the tackle and ran the show from midfield, until we scored.

Our scorer was a tousle-haired inside forward named Kit Napier. He became my immediate hero, and along with Brylcreem-blonde crowd favourite Charlie Livesey, they remain personal Albion legends.

Others in our team that day were the solid Norman Gall, John Napier (no relation to Kit), George Dalton, the emerging midfield dynamo John Templeman and two wingers Wally Gould and Brian “Tiger” Tawse, who would match Knockaert and Skalak for trickery, but maybe not pace!

So I was hooked for life and began a routine of a bus ride on the number 26 from Mile Oak to the ground for a home match every fortnight, and a Football Combination (reserve game) on alternate Saturdays – the matches when you got to talk with the keeper during the game!

Then there came the waiting-in-line at the North-West corner gates for players’ autographs after training, during the school holidays, scrapbooks of match cuttings from the Argus and the obligatory club scarf and a matching Subbuteo team.

It was an all-consuming schoolboy passion.

And a passion, which over these 50 years has endured living in Scotland, Yorkshire and the North East, the hellish fight for the survival of our club in the mid-1990s, the Gillingham and Withdean years and at last the glory of the Amex and our promotion to the promised land of the Premier League.

In 1967, England were World Champions, Harold Wilson was Prime Minister, the newest must-have car was the Ford Escort, mods still fought rockers on Brighton beach, man had yet to land on the moon and colour TV was still just a dream.

Yep, times have changed…

My return bus journey to the Goldstone in 1967 was 8d (about 3p), admission to the North Stand was 2s 9d (13p) – a lot less for the reserve games – the match programme was 1s (5p), a cup of Bovril 2d (1p) and a bag of crisps the same!

So to travel and watch my heroes every Saturday, and enjoy a half-time snack cost a stately 22p!

To put things in perspective: in 1967 a man’s average annual wage was £900, the average mortgage was £80 a year and a loaf of bread was just 5p… a season ticket to watch the English champions Manchester United was £8.50.

To allow for inflation, £1 in 1967 is worth £16.80 today, so I’ll let you do the maths and comparisons.

Now, aged 62 and sitting in front of a state-of-the-art PC with Sergeant Pepper’s playing on iPlayer, the years come tumbling back and memories of that sunny Saturday in 1967 will never leave me.