| TITLE |
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| Football Seasons | ||
| AUTHOR | ||
| Mick Bower |
| TITLE |
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| Football Seasons | ||
| AUTHOR | ||
| Mick Bower |
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Every season throws up a turning point. A dodgy penalty, a 50/50 offside, a lucky goal. A rush of blood or a flash of inspiration can mean the difference between promotion and relegation. One incident that can make or break you. In his career Paul Andrews has taken everything the game could throw at him. Andrews appears to have it all: a career in football, a beautiful wife and kid, and respect for being a 'hard man'. Everything a working class lad is told to aspire to. But out jogging in a park one winter's night, Andrews finds himself drawn to an attractive young gay man, and all the trappings of his success are put at risk by the strength of the emotions that erupt. If he takes his eye off the ball this time, he'll go down for good. |
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Mick Bower was born in Sheffield in 1966. At 16, he left school with one O-level. He spent the 1984/85 miners strike on a government scheme, digging ditches then filling them in again. In his late twenties Bower took A-levels and went to university, obtaining an honours degree in Politics in 1995. Ironically, he was considered unemployable for a time after he completed his degree, and it is then (in 1995-6) that he wrote Football Seasons.
"I got the idea for Football Seasons from a pub chat with an old guy I knew. After heaping praise on the Sarf London gangsters of yesteryear, he told me in graphic detail why Michael Barrymore deserved hanging. I wasn't shocked. Most lads I know would say the same. We're brought up to respect violence and hate anyone who dares to be different." |
| "Mick Bower's Football Seasons examines the sport's gentrification and even tackles homosexuality in the pro game. Of the current batch of football novels, only Bower's tries to depict the game from the player's point of view." | Scotland on Sunday | |
| "There's nothing like a sudden plot twist to hold your attention... Those expecting a gritty portrayal of a first division footballer's brief fame and struggle to adapt, won't be disappointed. They may, however, choke on their custard creams when it emerges that part of the central character's struggle is with his own sexuality." | FOUR FOUR TWO |
1 901072 161 / JUN 98 / £7.99