|
 |
INTERVIEW WITH JOHN WILSON, AUTHOR OF "THE AYRESOME ANGEL" 8-11-07
Steve Goldby
BUY YOUR COPY OF THE AYRESOME ANGEL ONLINE HERE...
"An air of mounting anticipation began to build until suddenly, there was a deafening fanfare as the opening few bars of a rousing tune called 'The Power Game' blasted through the tinny loudspeakers. Jack didn't know why, because he had never heard the music before, but it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end."
From 'The Ayresome Angel' by John Wilson, published by Juniper Publishing 2007
John Wilson, the author of the fantastic 'Ayresome Park Memories' and George Hardwick's biography 'Gentleman George', had actually retired from book publishing in order to concentrate on his auctioneering business. Yet he has made a Rocky Balboa style comeback upon rediscovering the original notes for 'The Ayresome Angel', a piece he had penned years earlier.
We met up with John in Middlesbrough this week to discuss the book and hear what the author had to say about its inception and release.
JW: "Quite simply, 'The Ayresome Angel' is a short story that can be read in half an hour. It's about a Grandfather who takes his son back to Ayresome Park to show him the sights and sounds of what football was like nearly half a century ago.
It's a mix of 'Goodnight Sweetheart' and 'Field of Dreams' in as much that there is a device that enables the two main characters to revisit the ground."
ComeOnBoro.com:Would we be right in thinking that it could be slightly autobiographical?
JW: "The book is autobiographical in the sense that when I came back to the text sometime after it had been written, I realised that the two main characters were both me.
I'm the Grandfather who is yearning for a return to a time when watching football was a lot less complicated, more enjoyable and less expensive than it is today.
I'm also the Grandson reacting in the awe-struck way that I did on my first visit to Ayresome Park in the early 1960s. I became completely hooked on everything I saw and heard.
If I was being brutally frank, it's me in the psychiatrist's chair."
ComeOnBoro.com: So who will the book appeal to?
JW: "Any mature Boro supporter who remembers Ayresome Park in the 1950s/60s/70s and who had the same emotional attachment to the ground that I did.
That's not to say that it can't be read and explained by dads and grandads to their kids and grandkids because I feel the younger generation need to be made fully aware of the Boro's colourful history.
Having said that, a local teacher brought the book into her school and gave it to her class to review. The pupils were hooked on it straight away and instantly wanted to know more about the Boro's and Ayresome Park's history.
This is extremely encouraging as I find it disappointing that there are people around Teesside who are not aware that World Cup matches were held at Ayresome in 1966.
If you don't know where you've come from, you can't know where you are going."
ComeOnBoro.com: What do you make of the accustaions levelled at you that you are living in the past?
JW: Guilty as charged!
I have no emotional attachment to The Riverside but I most certainly do to Ayresome Park.
It was where I spent my formative football years as a Boro fan and it's still extremely important to me and should not be undervalued.
As I've touched on earlier, I feel that an awareness of history and tradition is important.
ComeOnBoro.com: Where did the inspiration for the book come from?
JW: "It all started when I did the update to 'Ayresome Park Memories'. That provided the inspiration as I was meeting former players and that in itself brought back the memories of me going to my first match.
That was an FA Cup third round replay against Blackburn Rovers in the early Sixties but because that winter was the worst in living memory, the third round was not played until March. The supporters had been starved of football for weeks and so over 40,000 turned out for this game.
I was captivated by the size and array of the ground and being just a small boy, I was parked at the front of the stand and was really close to the players. I could see their breath and hear them talking and the memories of climbing the steps and seeing Ayresome Park for the very first time will never leave me.
Football was more important in those days as there was generally less to look forward to. The Gazette was the bible and Cliff Mitchell's and Ray Robertson's reports were factual. They were written in a simplistic style perhaps, but you could take their reporting as gospel.
The whole week was all about the build up to 3pm Saturday and the sights and sounds that don't exist anymore, like the smell of linament and the supporters shouting at the players through the dressing room window."
ComeOnBoro.com: Do you have any plans for any further books?
JW: "I brought out 'Ayresome Park Memories' because in 1994, there was only one worthy Boro book out there and that was Harry Glasper's stats book.
I did it with Eric Paylor who said he would only come on board if I had a publisher behind it and Breedon Books agreed to do it. The first edition sold out and so did the update so that gives me encouragement.
There is a possibility that I will re-launch George Hardwick's biography but that is only a thought at the moment. George kept every interview he ever did on tape and some of those interviews have not been heard for years so there are possibilities.
'The Ayresome Angel', as well as hopefully providing enjoyment for Boro fans, definitely has educational value and if it helps keep alive the spirit of Ayresome Park, that will make me very happy indeed.
BUY YOUR COPY OF THE AYRESOME ANGEL HERE...
DISCUSS THIS INTERVIEW IN THE NEW HOLGATE MESSAGE BOARD
BACK TO INTERVIEWS INDEX
|
|
|
|
