HuddersRam

46 minutes ago, Shuff264 said:

I just finished today, comfortably one of the best books I read in 2020.

It gave great insight into the club, at times it confirmed things I already believed and others it challenged them.

It was good to get an education on stuff that was either before my time or I simply cannot remember.

Really good read, thanks for writing it!

Thank you @Shuff264! That's fantastic to hear, and I'm glad you enjoyed the book.

I'll be going live on TalkSport in an hour or so (absolutely no idea how this has happened) to talk all things Pride, in case anyone doesn't have anything to do and doesn't have a hangover too severe.

8 hours ago, Orphanram said:

I started reading my copy yesterday and I’m really enjoying it. I’m not sure if it’s deliberate but I think the stylistic of the narrative that runs through the book (what I have read so far) is quite unique. The opinions from the various people involved give the reader a chance to form their own opinions against the the sequence of chronological events of the last 20 years. Whilst you do see this in other books what you also tend to get is the authors bias of the opinion they’ve formed underpinning this. What’s is genuinely original (in my view) in your book is that this runs parallel to the opinion/bias that has been formed by the general views that you get on forums such as this and others that preceded it over the years, rather than the learned opinion from the established author/journalist writing the book. It has made me reflect on a fair few assumptions I’ve made over the years and also made me think more about what is happening now and has happened in the last 6 months. 

Thank you so much @Orphanram. To be honest, it's a style I've always loved writing in (did me zero favours when it came to those serious uni assessments!) and so I wanted the book to reflect something I'd enjoy reading. It's quality to see that has happened for quite a lot of you out there. I also always wanted to just get the key thoughts of people and make sure it was something genuinely unique and insightful, rather than just the rambles of a disgruntled fan over the years. This forum and the takes of various supporters really helped to get a full feel for the overall opinions, so I didn't want to just go in on my thoughts, because honestly, who wants those?!

Thanks also @Shaftesbury Street, @Ilsonram12, @Anna, @bucktwoand @Phoenix! Incredible to get the feedback from you all. And @QuitYourJibbaJivin+ @G-Ram - hope you enjoy the book! Would love to get your thoughts. Hopefully I've not missed anyone out!

And without being soppy, massive thanks to all of you. I came into 2020 intent on finishing the book and making a success of it, but it's gone way beyond what I thought it would do. It's been a horrid old year but hopefully those of you who have picked up a copy have found it's brought just that little bit of enjoyment to you. I've got a couple more ideas in the pipeline (one Derby and two a bit wider) that I'm hoping to get stuck into in 2021...

1 hour ago, Rev said:

I think you should have a 24hr book buyers bonus deal.

We send you pictures of our books, and in return you email us the good stuff you had to leave out!

We won't say a word, honest.

Think I should have put it in the smallprint somewhere. If we can get enough people to hold a 'Free the Pride one' sort of protest, I'll out them all.

Hope you enjoy the book, @Pearl Ram!

3 hours ago, Andrew3000 said:

How many have you sold? It's a compelling read. My worst fears about Nigel seem confirmed.  Terrible spiteful streak and old fashioned methods. Created great unity but ruthless discarding of players (equal to or greater than the ruthlessness of his sacking)  and caused unnecessary injuries.  Very mixed on the transfer front.  I'm up to the end of Mac 1. It's mostly thrilling to relive but awful to read how he hadn't properly considered to get a back up for Martin.

Well done, great timing on this one, we were ready for this!

 

Not a clue to be honest! I imagine the publishers will let me know in the next month or so, although it's done way better than I - and they - expected. Never realised we had so many supporters! To be honest, the club support has helped a lot as well. They've been brilliant for saying it's not entirely complimentary of them over the years.

Agreed on Nigel. There was actually quite a bit I wasn't allowed to use unfortunately (most of which was from Giles Barnes) because it would have left me on pretty shaky ground! Either loved or hated is Clough.

22 hours ago, FlyBritishMidland said:

Finished this today and I really enjoyed it @HuddersRam.  It’s the first book I’ve read that’s written about a period I’ve been “part of”, the others being about the 70’s glory years and just before I started supporting The Rams.  I could relate to the games, the players, the memories - good and bad.  It made me realise how much has happened in the last 20 years.  So much so that some of the chapters could be books in their own right!!

 

Great to hear, @FlyBritishMidland! Yeah my first word count from the publishers was 90k. Quickly realised that was way, way below what was needed. In the end, the book could have been half the size! Glad you enjoyed it mate.

And a huge thank you to everyone who has got a copy of the book or just expressed any interest in it. It's been absolutely mental these past few weeks as the book went up to 2nd in the Amazon football charts, which is about 1000 places higher than I ever hoped for. Don't ask what Roald Dahl is doing in the football charts (no idea either). Up the Rams. ?

4 hours ago, Steve How Hard? said:

Finished the book earlier today, much to the delight of my other half who has felt neglected as I immersed myself into it(the book that is). Really enjoyed it and as you say @HuddersRam in the last chapter, there is enough material in the last 12 months to fill another book or even a film. Knowing Derby as we all do, something tells me that there is more to come too. I'd suggest you start work on the sequel before someone beats you to it. 

Fancied a bit of a break, with the hope we'd have calmed down since signing off on it. Fear I might be a bit mistaken on that!

Glad you enjoyed it @Steve How Hard?.

6 hours ago, DarkFruitsRam7 said:

@HuddersRam, I was astounded and depressed by the stat that said, if McClaren had been there from the start of the 13/14 season, and if we’d maintained our PPG during that period, we’d have finished on 108 points.

Of course, it’s a huge ‘if’, but it goes to show how good we really were.

Madness isn't it. Easy to forget just how good we were for 35 games or so. What could have been...

35 minutes ago, DenbyRam said:

Started this today. First chapter about the end of the BBG and that "five miles" away Pride Park was ready to welcome its "tenants".

Its not five miles between the stadiums, a mile in a straight line, no more than a couple of miles by car surely. 

Were we tenants? We owned/own it, even if we've never paid the bleeding mortgage off...

Other than that, a good read so far. 

Should have said 'five miles if you take a two mile detour'... Probably. Glad you're enjoying it so far though!

7 hours ago, Gee SCREAMER !! said:

Started reading yesterday and enjoying it .   When you asked for ex players a while ago as recommendations I suggested Rob Lee as someone who had a bit to say when he left and he features fair bit in the first part, so that might have helped . Glad if it did-or you might already have contacted him at that stage.  

Yeah that was entirely from your recommendation! Rob was great to be honest - him and Craig Burley were intriguing to speak with.

@mozza - a signed one will definitely decrease the resale value over time ? I had a few signed ones to giveaway over Christmas from Bryson and a few others - if there's enough interest, I'll ask a few players to do it again

1 minute ago, DarkFruitsRam7 said:

Just reached The Clough Years, @HuddersRam. Really enjoying so far.

If I could offer one bit of constructive criticism, it would be that you present a few arguments as facts when they could really be questioned.

For example, you state that Jake Buxton is a Derby legend. In my book, legend status is the highest honour and should be reserved for those who have given the club some of its greatest moments. You can’t have Buxton on the same footing as the likes of Hector and McFarland, or even Davison.

You might think differently, and that’s fine of course, but I don’t think stuff like that should be presented as though it can’t be questioned.

Other than that, I’m loving it!

Glad you're enjoying it, mate. And that makes perfect sense yeah, I do have a knack of over egging at times, so can completely get what you mean by that. Thanks for the feedback, appreciate that.

And thanks too to those who have mentioned they got a copy yesterday! Hope you all enjoy it. It's managed to get back into the top 10 on Amazon somehow, which is insanity.

@angieram - I'll drop you a private message and sort you out with a copy ?

Hope you all had a great Christmas!

4 hours ago, DavesaRam said:

Bought a copy from my son, and with the lockdown I don't know if it will get to him, but I can't read it as he is a sharp cookie and will spot any slight thumb prints or other markings on pages. However, I suspect that my wife may have bought it for me, either for Christmas or for my birthday, which is just after New Years Day.

You've obviously spoken to loads of people for this, and I wondered how you first managed to get your foot in the door to actually access all these people, as most of us mere mortals don't get to meet any of them.

Hope it goes down well! You too @Woodley Ram+ @Coolascustard.

Yeah so my uni background is in sports journalism but I didn't actually have any of the connections when I began writing the book. So it took a good couple of years to build up all the relevant contacts and find the best people to contribute to the book. A lot of being ignored by media teams and then desperately begging some of those who contributed to help out with a few people. I go into a bit more detail on it in this pod with the @Steve Bloomer's Washing chaps:

21 hours ago, Premier ram said:

Found a gift card from Waterstones that i had for my birthday and forgotten about , used it today to get a copy of Pride , heard great things about it , cant wait to start reading it

Great stuff, @Premier ram! Hope you enjoy the book mate.

If anyone else gets a copy for Christmas, would love to get your feedback on it! I think the delivery deadline for the book on Amazon has now passed, and I think the club have sold out online, but I reckon there are still a few copies in store and in a few book shops around Derby. There's my marketing spiel, I am not a master of it

8 minutes ago, Rev said:

Thanks for the answer. 

To me, the book seemed to flow better the more I read, once I'd got 40/50 pages in the words just seemed to fall off the page into my head. 

I too took a a few weeks rest, probably related to real world events, before I plunged into Rowetts trainers to the finish!

It's a great book, and no doubt one I'll pick up again soon, if only to remember the highs, and console myself during the lows to come.

Thanks Rev! And yeah, I know exactly what you mean to be quite honest. With the first chapter or so, it was all in a good place that I and the proofreader (also a Ram) were happy with, and then a few things out of our control meant some sections needed removing and a few quotes were changed around. Luckily after that, it became a free for all!

I'm glad you enjoyed it though, mate. Great to get that feedback.

6 minutes ago, Rev said:

Did you write it chronologically too?

Nope not at all. I think the first season I wrote was 13/14, then 18/19. The last two were the Clough ones as they were the ones without too much of a full on meltdown.

Some of the main interviewees came in quite late as well, so I had to basically redo a couple of them in the last few weeks to fit into some of the more interesting player answers!

2 hours ago, ilkleyram said:

Hi @HuddersRam.  You said that you wanted some feedback in one of your earlier posts so, now I've read it......

The last 100 pages were a struggle, not because of the book but because of my general DCFC mood.  The last 5 results and improved performances and mood made me pick it up again and finish it after several weeks gap.

I enjoyed it a great deal and would recommend it to any Rams fan (or general football fan). Thank you for writing it. It must have been a real labour of love at times.

I don't know whether there are any factual errors - all the seasons tend to blur for me - but it served as a really good reminder of some of the things we have gone through over the last few years and put them in some order.  There were some proof reading errors (grammar and the like) but they were relatively minor; at times too I had to go back to work out which season we were in, perhaps a few more memory jogs in the prose might have helped, especially in some of the blander seasons. As @RamNut has suggested the Giles Barnes comments were perhaps amongst the most revelatory.  An interesting character is Nigel - he obviously generates huge loyalty and significant dislike, perhaps in equal measure.

If I had a couple of questions/comments they would be:

1) why did you construct the story chronologically (not suggesting that was a bad thing to do, just wondered)? Did you consider writing it in a different way, by owner or manager perhaps or by taking a player from each season? The off field stories have been as interesting as the on field events over many of our PP years - the rise and fall of Lionel, the amigos, Gadsby/GSE and Mel as well as all the various managers.  There may be a series of books!

2) There were some omissions I thought.  Mel for example, Nigel, Jewell, John Vicars or Stephen Pearce (even Sam Rush), or a fan or fans' eye view or a local/national reporter maybe. The players interviewed seemed somewhat random at times (although Bryson runs as a theme throughout many of the years and is heavily featured). That may well be because no one else wanted to talk to you (or were tied up in legal restrictions), or if they did were very circumspect (Burley for example), but, for me, the details that I couldn't know (or had forgotten) are often the most interesting ones - about transfers in or out, contracts or training regimes, relationships with managers and team mates or coming from abroad to a provincial East Midland city, never mind the board room/takeover shenanigans.

I wish you all the best with it and hope it is selling well over Christmas.  Thanks again for writing it.

Thanks for that feedback @ilkleyram! I really appreciate you taking the time to provide it. Absolutely understandable - I think we've all wanted to be as far away from this club for much of this season, so the release of the book definitely wasn't ideal. You're right on the labour of love side. It became a weekly question of 'why on earth am I doing this?' but I massively enjoyed it.

Thanks for the mention on the prose as well. Can understand that completely. I'll do my best to answer the questions:

1) So yeah, I always planned on doing it chronologically because it was going to run from 2000-2020, but the further on I went the more it developed really. I did actually toy with the idea of doing it as a season/chapter on a player sort of thing, but I instead to do the player focuses as blogs instead to raise a bit of awareness on the book in the end. Completely agree that there's loads more I didn't manage to fit in!

2) I made an initial list of about 80 or so people which changed massively over time. My original targets were more of the 'lesser' players without being disrespectful, but the further along it went on, the more strong connections I managed to make. Of the list above, Jewell and Clough both refused to take part. Tom Glick + Andy Appleby never responded to a few interview requests and Sam Rush legally wasn't allowed to speak, although he was really good to deal with and has read the book since it's release. Mel I pushed to get for a long time but it never happened unfortunately, though he did have to give final approval before the release of the book because it wasn't entirely complimentary. To be fair, I always tried to get the key people where possible. So even with the Amigos, I was really close to getting Jeremy Keith before he turned it down. Keogh too had agreed to take part but the longer his legal battle with the club went on, the more it became impossible. Billy Davies too had agreed before backing out. I tried to get a member of the coaching staff + management team as much as possible as well. I think the Lampard + Davies reigns were the only ones I didn't manage to grab anything from unfortunately.

The book has gone down crazily well, certainly way better than I expected, and has just had it's third reprint since publication, which is wild. So a big, big thank you to everyone who has read it! It's been in and around the top 20 on Amazon since release, which again is completely crazy. I'm giving away a copy over on a separate thread in case anyone is keen on a pre-Christmas 'treat' (not sure that's the right word)

Thanks again Ilkley, I massively appreciate that!

17 hours ago, RamNut said:

I finished it last night.

Much better than I expected to be honest. 
probably one of the best books on the history of the club, not just because it covers recent history but the judgements and assessments are fair. Some of the facts revealed are quite shocking.
it’s hard work reliving what in hindsight reads as repetitive failure with few notable exceptions. I’ll probably read it again over xmas as there is so much content. The biggest lesson for me - Giles Barnes - comes out really well and badly treated. I didn’t expect that.

I agreed with the final line btw.

That's fantastic to hear @RamNut, really appreciate your feedback and I'm glad you enjoyed it. Yeah I felt particularly for Giles, he still holds a lot of disappointment towards how his Derby career unfolded.

Yep. That final line has become even more poignant of late.

On 23/11/2020 at 22:59, Jase116 said:

Ordered mine yesterday, Xmas prezzie from the Mrs, but somehow I’ve had to pay for it!!!  Work that one out ????‍♂️?‍♂️?‍♂️

Enjoy that mate, hope she pays you back! ?

6 hours ago, RamNut said:

Finally able to start reading mine today, and I’m already on page 95.

Having just read two Clough biographies this tale of crisis after crisis is fascinating but wearing. There seem to be many parallels with current events, especially the period where we threw money at a veteran striker and then wanted to compound the error by making Ravanelli manager.

It’s well researched. Well written. Just Spotted one tiny error. Tommy smith came from Sunderland not Watford.

still. It’s interesting to read the story of our recent history. 

Good effort on getting that far already! And poor effort from me on what I will now deem the Tommy Smith Crisis. Still, if that's the biggest error, I'm quite happy with that!

Hope you're enjoying it @RamNut , keep me informed on what you think

On 21/11/2020 at 10:08, richinspain said:

Just ordered my copy. Can't wait ?

Love that mate, hope you enjoy it! As a friend pointed out to me today, we've not won a game since it came out. But I refuse to take the blame for that, as we didn't win many before it either.

2 hours ago, DarkFruitsRam7 said:

This book is going places, @HuddersRam.

I ordered it to my home home (i.e. non-uni address) and my mum saw it and decided to get a copy as a Christmas present for her partner, who I'm still yet to meet!

Yeah you properly walked into it with that last sentence ?

Great to hear though mate! What better way to bond than over the various rants of Billy Davies?

13 minutes ago, ilkleyram said:

Spoiler alert...................

He doesn't

 

Currently working on future Booker Prize winner, Stern John: My Pride Park Years.

Not actually interviewed him, just 300 pages of what he probably thought.

21 minutes ago, Nuwtfly said:

Hi @HuddersRam, I'm asking my missus to get me a copy for Christmas

Quick question: is it better to get it from Amazon or from your publisher? Which one will you make more money out of? Would rather put a bit more in your pocket! ?

To be honest mate, I don't think there's any difference! The club have it though in case you wanted it to stick local, or I think it will be in bookstores when the shops reopen again. I'll drop you a DM though

1 hour ago, Steve Buckley’s Dog said:

If you can get Warren Barton, Claude Davis, Eddie Lewis and Stern John to sign it then I’m in. 

Swap Stern John for Robert Earnshaw and you've got yourself a deal

10 hours ago, silhillian said:

A great read, really enjoyed it.  Don't think there's another book out there that gives such an insightful look into our more recent past.  Never a dull moment being a Derby fan and it looks like the next few years could be just as colourful!  Thanks  @HuddersRam.

Thanks mate, glad you enjoyed it!

Just now, HuddersRam said:

Haha completely understandable! Glad you enjoyed it buddy. Yeah the Clough ones seem to have really gone down well, which is mad because honestly, they were the ones without any controversy compared to the rest!

I've got a few ideas, although I'm not sure what else I can say about Derby at the minute. There are a couple of bits in the pipeline, but I'm just trying to work whether I've got the capacity to dedicate all time outside of work to another one at the minute!

If anyone has read the book (I know a few of you have, don't be shy), please feel free to leave a review from wherever you grabbed it from. It really helps to know what you all thought of it and whether it would be worth looking into a potential follow up one day!

Aaaaand just a quick one on here. I'm looking at setting up some signed copies from some of those players who contributed to Pride. Asked the question on Twitter and it seemed to have a lot of interest but if anyone here would be keen on getting a signed copy from one of those who contributed, just let me know. ?