By Myles Palmer
Educated Gooner Melvyn Bragg, a season-ticket holder, said in Saturday’s Times that he liked my book.
Very decent of LWT’s cultural supremo to give it a mention, since he has apparently BOUGHT the book and read it out of interest. Not because he has been sent a free copy.
I called his office, spoke to his PA, asked her to thank the great gent.
He wrote an article called REVOLUTION IN THE HEAD and says, “Myles Palmer’s recent biography (The Professor, Virgin Books, £18.99) assumes that Wenger can be fully known by what he says and does. What he says appears to relate exclusively to football.
“His idea of a holiday is to watch videos of youth teams in Bulgaria. You have the impression that he is a one-man secret service — contacting his agents all over the planet, monitoring the progress of every young player of skill and promise everywhere. He has a partner, a 4-year-old daughter, and the rest is silence save for football.
“I am tempted to conclude that Palmer’s take is the right one. Inside this austere, dedicated high priest is a raving fanatic, like so many others obsessed by the grace and cruelty of the game.”
Blimey!
Melvyn Bragg is tempted to conclude that my take is the right one!
I didn’t think anybody would go so far as to say that.
Because many people always want the controversy,the secrets about a famous man, what he has hidden. They have been brought up in a tabloid world so they think everybody has dirty secrets.
And of course some people will always read a book and say : I knew all that,there’s nothing new in this book, I could have written it.
That is just life, human nature.So I did not get bent out of shape when people said that.
I can remember smiling inwardly on August 28th when I bumped into reporter Bill Pierce, who had been reading the book before it came out.
This was at the press door when we were arriving for the Leicester game and Bill said,”I’m enjoying it. There’s a lot of things in there I didn’t know.” So I said, “Thanks very much.”
Bill knows everything about Arsenal and is at the training ground every week.
I was never going to worry about people knocking my book because I’m proud of my book.I like it and that is what matters to me.I know that it contains many insights which have taken me five years to figure out.
It’s the best book I’ve written so far, so I’m improving. That’s how I look at it.If readers think I sound like Naseem Hamed, tough.They can think what they like.
Some reviews have said : Not really a biography, we wanted more on his childhood, more on his early life as a footballer.
But my pal Rob Hughes (who e-mailed today from Korea) told me last month that he thinks an ANALYSIS of what Wenger has done at Arsenal is a more interesting and worthwhile book, unless he had an abnormal, traumatic childhood.
So it’s nice that two guys as smart as Melvyn Bragg and Rob Hughes reckon I’ve written a decent book.I will settle for that – I don’t mind if I never sell another copy.
I’ve already had a few gratifying moments with The Professor.
It was nice to appear with Tom Watt on London Live and be chauffeured there and back in a BBC car.
It was lovely to do LBC and review the Sunday papers with a legendary pro like Brian Hayes.
It was really a gas to go to Talksport and chat to Richard Kaufmann, who relaxed me, so I was articulate on that show.
We talked about Arsene and George Graham, went over to a Sven-Goran Eriksson press conference, and then came back and talked a bit more about my book. I really felt like a part of the day’s news cycle.
After the broadcast I strolled back along the Thames on a sunny autumn day, past the NFT, dawdled at the outdoor book stalls for an hour, ambled past the Festival Hall, nobody chasing me, no mobile, no hurry, no sweat, just a Londoner enjoying a day off in his city.
When I heard that The Professor had been reprinted I was pleased because none of my other books has been reprinted.
My South African dentist Neil said he wanted a signed copy, so I said we authors only get enough copies for family.
“But I am family!” he cried, so I gave him my last copy.
He does Jan’s teeth, and Michael’s, and Caroline’s, so Neil is family, really.
When I went back to the surgery last week he said, “I’m a layman but I’m enjoying it. It’s so well written, I feel as if I’m there!”
I know it’s very showbiz to repeat compliments, and it is something I rarely do.
He thinks it is well-written.
He sounded a little surprised.Maybe he figured me for a talker, rather than a writer. Whatever, I’m glad that a guy who is a rugby fan and a cricket fan is enjoying my book about a football manager.
I have only seen the reviews that friends email to me.
I should be concerned about the reviews but I’m not. I don’t know why that is. I think it’s because I have a gut feeling that, for this particular book, reviews are not as important as word-of-mouth.
If enough people read it, and reckon it’s a decent book, they will tell their friends and their friends will give it to a Gooner for Xmas.
That is what might happen. They might give THE PROFESSOR for Xmas.
If Arsenal fans do that it will have to be reprinted again.
If not, I’ve had a few laughs and my wife and kids don’t think my 15 minutes of “fame” have made me any more big-headed than I was before.
Being an author is like anything else. You go from week to week, enjoy the ups and downs, roll with the punches if you have to, enjoy the good days.
For instance, Borders in Charing Cross Road.
A few weeks ago Alex Fynn told me I should sign some copies in a bookshop.
So one night, when I was meeting a friend outside the Borderline club, where we were going to see American alt-country singer Mary Gauthier,I noticed that Borders was still open.
I went upstairs to the sports section and spoke to an assistant, a girl in jeans and a checked blue shirt, who was so gracious about it that I was blown away.
She seemed thrilled that I should appear out of nowhere and offer to sign my book. She was absolutely delighted by this tiny transaction, as if I was conferring some honour on her and the shop!
She gave me a card with their phone number and said that there were eleven copies in the system, and that the next time I was in the area I should phone in advance, and they would find those other copies, and I could sign them as well.
Sometimes people are so kind, so charitable, so gracious, that I feel overwhelmed.That was one of those occasions.
In terms of my own deepest feelings, I think the desire to write a book is really a longing to write something definitive, something that will last for a while, that will influence what else is written. That is why I gave The Professor everything I had.
A book has a life of its own, I’ve discovered, so it keeps surprising you.
An article cannot do that, but a website can.
That was my little theory two years ago : that a website is more like a book than a newspaper.
12th November 2001.