Reading between the lines: ghostwriters and sport

Ghostwriters: like teenagers stealing drink from unsuspecting couples.

The always-readable Pitch Invasion takes a fairly extensive look at footballers’ autobiographies.

I talked to some of the men who pen them, ghostwriters, for the Irish Examiner.

“I went to the World Cup, I was shite, here’s my book” was how Joey Barton succinctly and accurately summed up the raft of autobiographies spawned by England’s 2006 tournament failure.

But for every tome revealing whether Wayne Rooney likes to ring for a pizza before or after he watches Countdown, there’s a Liam Dunne, Dessie Farrell or Tony Cascarino laying bare his soul for all to peruse.

Vincent Hogan’s unflinching account of Paul McGrath’s colourful and fascinating life claimed sports book of the year and tops bestsellers lists.

Brian Corcoran’s book Every Single Ball has made headlines for its outspoken views while the rash of autobiographies from the England footballers’ German let-down has generated unprecedented criticism. This Christmas sports personalities’ autobiographies are big business.

But what of those who take up the task of producing these books- the ghost writers? And where does this intimate, collaborative process begin?

Henry Winter, chief football writer with the London Telegraph has ghostwritten the autobiographies of Liverpool legends Kenny Dalglish, John Barnes and most recently current Reds’ skipper and England midfield dynamo Stephen Gerrard.

“First you sit down and decide the shape of the book. Do they want to do it chronologically, thematically etc. Then it’s just a matter of doing some interviews. This time, it was pretty painless. Stevie’s a really good talker.

“If you sat down for an hour and got 4500 words out of it, you could use half of it. Then you have a bit of artistic license to buff it up a bit. Pick a nice line and thread it through a chapter or build on a good story.”

Donn McClean, the Sunday Times horse racing correspondent has told the parental advisory rated tale of champion jockey Timmy Murphy story in the unflinching Riding the Storm.

“I did know it was going to be an honest account and if it wasn’t going to be I don’t know if it was a project I’d have taken on,” he says, “I think the reader is more discerning these day. They won’t take just any thing. There are so many autobiographies out there now that you just have to be honest, I think.

“There’s a lot of dross out there. But with Timmy there was so much depth there, to work with. It was a gift”

Derek Alsopp ,who produced My Story with Captain Marvel Bryan Robson, young stars publishing books is ridiculous. “There’s no comparison is there between your Bryan Robsons and Roy Keanes and bloody Ashley Cole. I don’t know how the guys writing those ones did it to be honest.”

Says, Kieran Shannon, ghost writer for Justin McCarty, Ger Loughnane and Mickey Harte as well as recently completing Brian Corcoran’s story: “We didn’t want just any old effort. Brian has since talked of the beast that became the book. I was particularly busy this year, and so was he, so I wasn’t just going to do it for anyone. This was not going to be a pedestrian read that everyone has forgotten about in 12 months time.

“There’s this thing ‘what happens on the pitch; stays on the pitch’ but that’s rubbish. We show Tony Browne trash talking, or Brian Lohan cursing. It’s real.”

Adds Winter: “Well for me a footballer has to have achieved something y’know, but I mean it’s fair enough. There’s reality TV stars who churn out books and make a lot of money so why not footballers. Wayne Rooney takes some slack for his book, but he’s probably one third of the way through his career now, that’s the equivalent of Mick Jagger at 35 or so. I don’t have a problem with that.

“Stevie though is different I think, that’s why the book is doing so well. There’s something special about him, there’s substance and he’s achieved a lot.”

Winter, a well-heeled London gentleman, sounds as far removed from gritty Merseyside streets as one can imagine; how then did he pen Gerrard’s northern tale, in a Scouse font?

“The key thing is getting the tone of voice right,” he says, “That’s everything. It sounds funny but I actually hung around street corners in Liverpool just trying to pick up the patter.

“It’s important, I thought, to really get the authentic Scouse voice in the book and I think we did but, because I wouldn’t have come across that kind of person in my own life really, I needed to eavesdrop. I left every minute of it though.”

McClean agrees: “I met his mother who was really interesting, his uncles down in Cork, his school friends. And even if I didn’t use a fraction of that I needed to get a picture of what his life was like so I could write it accurately. You need to recreate it for yourself.

Is it an enjoyable journey? “I really enjoyed the process but it nearly killed me,” continues McClean. “The amount of work that went in to it was frightening. To do it properly I had to really immerse myself in it and it takes its toll. But it’s a great story. And it takes that to tell it right.”