HuddersRam
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Posts posted by HuddersRam
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6 hours ago, richinspain said:
Sounds great, it really is a pity I can't be there. Will any of it be recorded (shout out to @Owen87ITK)? Hope it goes well.
Not that I'm aware for this one sadly - I'll double check though
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Hi all, apologies for the repetition but just giving this one a nudge in case it's of interest to anybody!
It's the first and only real event Graham Richards has done since his BBC Derby days came to an end 20 years ago, and alongside Colin Gibson we'll reminisce through a lot of the Bald Eagle years whilst I very quietly intertwine it all to the Groundwork book I worked on (it is for Derby Book Fest after all, so I need to make it book-y for a minute or two)
If it is of interest to a few of you, would be amazing to see some of you down there. ?
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Hey all,
As some might know, I've put together a couple of books about Derby in the past couple of years, in Pride and Groundwork. Okay, that's the awkward bit out the way.
Just piping up as it might be of interest to some, Derby Book Festival are running a series of talks over the course of this month, and a bit alarmingly they've asked me to do one. But essentially, I wanted to make it more interesting to Derby fans and so I'm pretty excited to say that I've got a couple of very prestigious guests to join me up on stage.
Commentary titan Graham Richards will be making what I think is his first live Q&A appearance since his BBC Radio Derby days, alongside another Derby media giant in the form of Colin Gibson. It should be a really nice nostalgia trip of an evening, going primarily through the Jim Smith years but also delving back to Graham and Colin's time under, well, an absolute host of managers through the years. Had a chat with Graham last week on it, and he's still in absolute top form. There may also be a couple of surprise guests as well from life on the BBG pitch, but I'm just waiting to confirm on those.
In case it's of interest, tickets and info about the evening on 30th November can be found: bit.ly/3UdV76h.
There'll also be a few of the aforementioned books around as well to buy/steal (there won't be security on the doors tbf), so you can probably get Graham to sign them and give them out as Christmas presents. There's also free parking. Might also be beer as well. Have I sold it yet? Any questions just let me know, but hopefully it should be a good evening!
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On 28/08/2022 at 21:15, Wistaston Ram said:
Great to see the book in the club shop at last, bought a copy before the game yesterday and am now nearly half way through it. A lot of interesting stories from a great time in our recent history.
It took a while but we got there with it! If anybody is extremely bored this Sunday, the club have asked me to come in for a signing session thing at the store from 1-2 (nope, me neither). I don't mean to beg, but I have visions of the below, so if you do have zero plans, please come along. I'll pay.
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On 12/08/2022 at 17:15, IslandExile said:
@HuddersRam any news on an ebook version yet?
I'm holding off the Kindle version for now because I would rather you profit more than Amazon. However, I'm getting close to finishing my current read and I'm keen to get into this one....happy times.
Apologies for not responding sooner! Looking it seems that it only feeds through to a Kindle version at the moment, so I'm not sure if it's on other e-book platforms...hopefully so though!
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On 08/08/2022 at 11:45, djb19538 said:
Pride was great and I Just ordered this - really looking forward to it. Arthur Cox era next? That was my favourite time as a Rams fan. Could be a good book. The few years before would be interesting also, though for different reasons!
Who knows what's next; we'll see how this one goes down first! On the subject of that - if you are reading/have read it, I hope you're enjoying!
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18 hours ago, Wistaston Ram said:
@HuddersRam Is it possible to order a copy directly from you? I know you said a while back, it was something you were looking to do. Otherwise I'll get a copy from the club shop or Amazon.
It will be, I've just not been home since it came out so not had a chance to order any yet! If you wanted one sooner though, Amazon or Waterstones is probably your best bet as there's another delay getting it into the club shop shop apparently
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Hey everybody, just intruding to say that Groundwork is out now!
Was lucky to have some crazy support by the club in these past couple of weeks across the website and RamsTV, and it will be available in the Megastore early next week as well if it's of interest. But yeah - if you grab a copy, I hope you enjoy it! I loved working on this one, probably more than Pride, so hopefully the range of interviewees and behind the scenes bits do the Jim Smith years justice.
https://www.facebook.com/dcfcofficial/videos/739734390414440
- angieram, Kinder, Old Spalding Ram and 4 others
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Just now, IslandExile said:
Great news but....
Please an e-book version.There will be (apparently). Signed off on it yesterday so it should be available soon!
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Apologies for bumping this one back up, all. Just a heads up that Groundwork is out in just under two weeks now, which is a little bit mental and a little bit more terrifying. I've attached below the list of everyone who spoke for it (and volunteered their name) to give an idea of how it shapes up.
It should be available from the club shop, but it's also available from everywhere within this link: https://www.pitchpublishing.co.uk/shop/groundwork And if you want to hear some dulcet Leicestershire based tones to get you through the day, I was lucky enough to chat with the departing Chris Coles last week on what exactly it's all about: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0cfjwz3
- Kinder, RamuelLJackson and IslandExile
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Just an update on this one as it's looking like it's about six weeks away from publication, but -
Pretty excited to say that both Steve McClaren and Igor Stimac have done forewords for Groundwork! They're two of the however many ex players/coaches who contributed, and there's a lot of them inside, but to have them put their names to it is very decent.
The book is now available on a few different sites (all can be seen within https://www.pitchpublishing.co.uk/shop/groundwork) and I'm still trying to get it stocked with the club. But with everything off the pitch, it's proving a little difficult this time unfortunately. But we persevere.
One thing I did want to point out is on the RRP, which is admittedly hefty. Sadly this is out of my hands as it's sorted on the publishing side, but I am going to be looking to sell copies myself rather than letting Amazon take the 90+% they do. So if anybody is interested in getting a copy, I'm probably going to try and send out some copies directly without the middle man for £22 incl postage. Just drop me a message if keen ?
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1 minute ago, David said:
Would the club even profit as it’s run by Fanatics now?
They'd make a small cut I think - less than pre-Fanatics I'm guessing. But Fanatics generally are a bit less likely to deal with third parties as I think a few others have probably found.
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4 minutes ago, IslandExile said:
Really looking forward to this - cannot wait.
I'd much rather you get the money than Amazon but my reading nowadays is from my phone. So I kinda need a digital version.
Do you have any options?
Authors make very little either way (unless they self publish) to be honest, so in truth it doesn't bother me so much. I was thinking of doing some sales myself this time and buying from the printers, so I'm looking into the possibilities of that. But also chatting to the club soon as well on whether they will get involved, in which case the sales would go into them which is a lot better than to Bezos or whoever heads it up now.
But for digital, I'm 99% sure there'll be an ebook version. I'll get that confirmed though and let you know!
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Hi everybody, happy t̶a̶k̶e̶o̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶d̶a̶y̶ Monday.
I've been waiting for a while to get official confirmation, but just a heads up to say that Groundwork is looking like it will be set for publication on 1st August! Admittedly that is two months earlier than I thought so I am mid-panic, but it's fine. Going over old ground but basically, I put the Pride book together which came out in 2020, and as much as I enjoyed it, the twenty years it covered were pretty terrible to be a Rams fan. So this book takes in solely the Jim Smith years.
There's around 55 contributors in total ranging from Steve McClaren, Steve Round and Bill Beswick through to Igor, Eranio, Wanchope, Sturridge and more. There's also a specific section just on Jim with contributions from some of his family, Harry Redknapp and Howard Wilkinson, and a BBC Derby bonus chapter with Colin Gibson and Graham Richards reliving those years.
I've been lucky as well to be able to confirm in the last couple of days that McClaren and Igor are both providing forewords, which is a nice little bonus! Somehow it's about 120k words and 330 pages, so hopefully it's a decent comprehensive account of the time from those who lived it.
ANYWAY - I don't have info on the pre-order side of things yet besides Amazon (but I'd always recommend not to Amazon because they're doing okay for themselves) and will provide those once I do have the proper links and everything, as well as the actual correct price because I don't think it's as much as the one it says - hopefully. But yeah, that's it essentially. If anyone did read Pride and enjoyed it, I'd 100% say this is a better read. And if you read Pride and didn't enjoy it, that's okay too, I apologise profusely. If you didn't read Pride, that is fine for a third time. I'm on here daily but usually just lurk, so hopefully it doesn't look like I'm only jumping on to promote. Generally I live in the past and the present just confuses me.
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7 hours ago, IslandExile said:
Just finished reading Jim's autobiography. Good read. But seems partly written while he was still managing at Derby so you could see he was careful over some of the things he said.
If this book reaches the standards you set in the first, Pride, it will be very illuminating. Cannot wait. Good luck.
I think if I remember rightly he did two versions, an updated one covering his final months in full where he gave a bit more away. Cracking read though, some ridiculous anecdotes!
6 hours ago, Macintosh said:Of all the books written on Derby County, Pride has been the best by a country mile. I thought Pitch's production was wonderful. I do hope the one after this happens to be the present saga, fully explained and dissected, it requires a book, and a properly researched one with heart. I know Pride nearly had an interview with Richard Keogh, but interviews with him, Mel, Alonso, the Sheikh, all those that bid, the administrators, the MPs, players, management, journalists, supporters groups, the new owner(?), EFL etc, would be such a read if it could happen. Players that have departed like Bradley Johnson, Chris Martin and Ikechi Anya would be an interesting insight most would love to learn about.
Thank you Mac, I really appreciate that! There are some great Derby reads to be honest, particularly in comparison to some other clubs I've looked at who don't really have anything covering them. Bit odd really from their side but hey ho.
Pitch did a quality job with the production on it. I was 50/50 between self publishing and going through publisher, but glad I did the latter just from production value of it. I do have some plans in place for something along those lines in the future, but I know it's not one for anytime soon sadly. Also need to look into legal support before getting stuck into that one...
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Morning squad. I've been radio silence on here the last few months for two reasons:
- I can't add anything on the situation between just sorrow
- I've been working on something new
For those who don't know and for those who don't care (understandable, no complaints from me) I produced a book called Pride in 2020, which went into the last 20 or so years of the club. That was nice, but the issue is that for those 20 years we were pretty awful. So I wanted to work on something new and a bit more feel good. And so...
I'm really, really pleased to say that my next book will go live in Autumn of this year and it's titled: Groundwork: The Inside Story Behind Jim Smith's Derby County.
Just like Pride, it's told from the behind the scenes perspective of those incredible few years and includes insight from around 60 former players, coaches and staff members at the club. From Igor, Eranio and Sturridge, through to Steve's McClaren and Round, it delves into what made that time so special. But more than this it focuses on the work of Jim as a manager and crucially, as a man. I've spoken with the creators of Prozone, the first sports psychologist in British football, the first fitness coach in the game, to evaluate how pivotal Derby (yes, Derby) were in the evolution of football in this country. And there is also a section remembering Jim himself, including thoughts from his family, as well as close friends like Harry Redknapp and Howard Wilkinson. There's even a Graham Richards cameo or two.
I know there's a lot of continuing nightmares around us at the minute, but hopefully this brings a bit of joy and memories of what this club can be. ?
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Left Bonn (Germany) at 11:30 last night. Train from there to Frankfurt, flight from Frankfurt to Stansted, three trains later and just about to get through the door.
If you could all keep the noise down tomorrow, that would be much appreciated, as I'll be pretty tired. Cheers.
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Been in contact with loads of former players to make them aware of the severity of the situation at the minute, and there will be a load of videos coming through over the next few days. Keep an eye out to see some more in due course from either myself (ryanhills27) or the equally brilliantly first named Ryan Bourne (mrrbourne)
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Good support here from Danny Higginbotham as well.
- Rammy03, IslandExile, Kathcairns and 1 other
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Groundwork
in Derby County Forum
Posted
Glad you're enjoying it, buddy. If anyone else got a copy for Christmas, hope it didn't get in the way of the day too much!