Willie Irvine was a star goalscorer with Burnley in their glory days. He played for Northern Ireland, sharing a room with the legendary George Best and was destined for the very top. But then against Everton he broke a leg and was never the same, drifting into the lower leagues with Preston, Brighton and finally Halifax.

In his book he tells stories from the free-for-all days of the 1960’s... including one match when opponents tried to fix the score by bribery.

After retiring he bought a business only to see it fail. A suicide attempt was foiled and now Willie works part time at Burnley football club.

He decided to write the book to tell his grandchildren about his life only to find out he didn’t know too much about his own background. He always thought he had 17 brothers and sisters but research showed all but eight were half brothers and sisters and that his mother who had been married twice had never married his father! The book also brought the family back together again (hence the subtitle). Willie had fallen out with brother Bobby (a fellow international) and sister Jean but started talking again during the writing of the book.

The book was written with Dave Thomas, author of It’s Burnley, not Barcelona.

“Touching Memoir... unputdownable.”
Frank Keating, The Guardian

“A book of remarkable wit and humour.”
Belfast News Letter

“A fantastic story... “excellently and sympathetically written tome... “
Belfast Sunday Life