The Boy on the Shed:A remarkable sporting memoir with a foreword by Alan Shearer: Sports Book Awards Autobiography of the Year

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The Boy on the Shed:A remarkable sporting memoir with a foreword by Alan Shearer: Sports Book Awards Autobiography of the Year

The Boy on the Shed:A remarkable sporting memoir with a foreword by Alan Shearer: Sports Book Awards Autobiography of the Year

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Despite the heavy loading, and a natural reticence to “push myself forward”, this is a moment he has looked forward to.

Former Newcastle United winger Paul Ferris was 51. He had successfully forged a post-football career as a physio, barrister and then a CEO, and his award-winning memoir, The Boy on the Shed , was just about to be published. But then he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. This honest, sometimes brutal and frequently funny book tells the story of what happened next. A stirring testament to the strength of the human condition and the power of ideas. * Sunday Times Northern Ireland * Instead, it’s a wonderfully written account of a remarkable life, and a character shaped mostly by his experiences away from the beautiful game. Elsewhere, I couldn't square being told that his children filled him full of love, with then being told about spending almost every hour of the day away and working. Then literally giving up on years of study just as the goal is in sight, by which time the family house was lost. I didn't feel I got Paul or, at times, liked him. We read in passing that his wife is a teacher and I wonder how she managed with that and family (particularly as she had left her immediate family behind in Ireland). Why did she put up with it? I wanted to read a more three-dimensional take on her. She must be an incredibly strong, understanding woman. If the same fate befell a young starlet now, they would at least leave the club with enough in the bank to ensure they were comfortable until another opportunity arose.Nothing is off limits, the good and the bad handled with honest charm and sensitivity throughout. Yet, as the final chapter draws to a close, the reader is left to wonder where Ferris’s mind was at that time. An early contender for sports book of the year, The Boy On The Shed is not only a great story of a man who came tantalisingly close to making it as a top-flight footballer (and went on to achieve so much else besides), but is simultaneously engaging, well-paced and, like the very best stories, well written. * Press Association * Paul, the youngest sibling, was five when their home was petrol bombed. Another night his parents were set upon by a Loyalist gang as they left a club. You don’t forget things like that. It’s not all sadness, there are some funny parts. I loved the writing style and the brutal honesty of exactly what he went through physically and emotionally. Newcastle United wanted him to come over and, although he was keen to stay and finish his O-levels, maybe try and become the first member of his family to get into university, everybody told him it was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.

The appeal of his astute story-telling is that this book works on levels that reach far beyond football. Once hailed as the next George Best, he was the youngest player, at 16 years and 294 days old, to play for the Newcastle United’s first team, but then a freak training ground injury ended what everyone believed would be a glittering career as a professional footballer. A roller coaster read with appeal beyond football fans, this is a tale of struggle and tragedy, of love and hope, and offers humbling reality as an alternative to the traditional "rags to riches" adventure. * Daily Express * I had only been talking to him a couple of minutes when he revealed he had prostate cancer. There was a clue in the final paragraph of his book — “I’ve felt the first chill of winter. I fear that it’s just around the corner for me.” It might have attracted a more traditional audience, especially in the football-mad city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, to have related the title of the book to his days in St James’s Park’s inner sanctum.As a youngster living in Lisburn, he saw his home petrol-bombed by loyalists and his mum and dad beaten up in the street and lived constantly with the fear that his mother’s heart condition would kill her. Tonight he is on UTV Life withPamela Ballantine. Today and tomorrow at Eason and Waterstones in Belfast and Lisburn on a flying return visit to the land of his birth. There are various radio commitments too.

This is a brave yet humorous book which will serve a valuable purpose by highlighting that this disease can be beaten and hopefully encouraging that every man goes and gets a PSA test regularly a prevention is far better than cure. Ferris was born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland. In 1981, he signed for Newcastle United from Lisburn Youth in Northern Ireland and became the club's youngest ever debutant when he appeared aged just 16 years and 294 days. He scored his only senior goal against Bradford City in 1984. A medial ligament injury meant he played just 14 matches and moved to Barrow F.C., with whom he won the FA Trophy at Wembley before moving into local non-league football with Gateshead. I tried to finish the book on a positive note, but I thought the cancer diagnosis might be coming so the last bit of it, I felt very emotional when I was writing it,” he admits. PAUL Ferris would have every reason not to be so chipper when the phone rings for the umpteenth time. A long haul of press interviews and media obligations have filled recent weeks, and they’re not over yet. While I still have some issues nearly 2 years later these are much less now than they were, I had an easier time while on holiday this year than last, I'm off the worst of the medications, and I remain in remission from the cancer.Paul Ferris (born 10 July 1965) is a Northern Irish former footballer, physiotherapist for Newcastle United, barrister and author. Whether that’s the right way for football to go, I’m not sure, but after five years of being a professional footballer to walk away with nothing… football was a very different game then. It wasn’t in the stratosphere then that it is now.” This is a not a football book, as such. Rather, it is a memoir by someone who happened to have superior ability at the sport during his formative years which led him on a remarkable journey. Unique, interesting, extremely emotive and gives some insight that supporters have never heard before...His story is raw and will keep you engaged without using any exaggerations which try to win over readers...Ferris has pushed himself forward extremely well in his new book, so well that any Newcastle supporter's book collection will be incomplete without The Boy on the Shed in it. ( Newcastle Chronicle) The local UDA commander came to their home to say his men were not involved and pledged to find out who was, before Bernadette literally pushed him out the front door with her uninjured arm.



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