Paul Ferris was the youngest ever player for Newcastle, making his debut at 16. However, things soon turned sour and his football career ended as quickly as it had begun. Paul returned to Newcastle United where he remained as a physiotherapist for 13 years. He studied law and left to become a barrister before returning to the club once more as part of Alan Shearer's management team.Paul now runs a successful health and fitness business.
This will be one of the most talked about football books of
2018.
*Henry Winter*
A remarkable piece of writing...Life, death, love, leaving home,
motherly relationships, striving, all weaved into the football
journey and every page I found myself relating to his experiences,
some very personal...So much more than a sporting memoir. You could
take so much from it without an interest in football.
*Simon Bird, Football Correspondent, Daily Mirror*
An excellent read.
*Alan Shearer*
Paul Ferris has a good story to tell, in fact several, Irish and
Geordie, politics and football, and he tells it well, avoiding the
obvious pitfalls of trying to be either lyrical or philosophical or
too clever.
*Hunter Davies*
It is also not a run-of-the-mill book about football, but a
well-rounded, exceedingly candid account of his life on and off the
pitch and of his family, warts and all.
*Belfast Telegraph*
Unique, interesting, extremely emotive and gives some insight that
supporters have never heard before...His story is raw and will keep
you engaged without using any exaggerations which try to win over
readers...Ferris has pushed himself forward extremely well in his
new book, so well that any Newcastle supporter's book collection
will be incomplete without The Boy on the Shed in it.
*Newcastle Chronicle*
Paul Ferris has written a book that transcends genres...Ferris
writes with the sort of fluency that, on the pitch, once impressed
peers such as Paul Gascoigne.Ferris has gone beyond standard sports
autobiographies. The Boy On The Shed is of a time and place, of
Ireland, of Northern Ireland, of growing up a Catholic on a
Protestant estate in Lisburn in the 1970s. It is a story of
everyday sectarianism and its effects...These books offer a window
on another world. Paul Ferris spent much of his childhood in
Lisburn looking through one. What he saw, how he understood it and
didn't understand it, is gripping.
*Irish Times*
Once opened, you will be unable to put it down.
*Chronicle Live*
Superb
*Oliver Holt*
What a life, what a book...it is excellent. Sports book of the
year.
*BBC Radio 2 Simon Mayo*
A stirring testament to the strength of the human condition and the
power of ideas.
*Sunday Times Northern Ireland*
An early contender for sports book of the year, The Boy On The Shed
is not only a great story of a man who came tantalisingly close to
making it as a top-flight footballer (and went on to achieve so
much else besides), but is simultaneously engaging, well-paced and,
like the very best stories, well written.
*Press Association*
Paul Ferris's compelling memoir is different. For starters, he
wrote it all himself, beautifully. Also, it extends well beyond
football...It has been quite a journey from the garden shed he used
to climb, back in Lisburn, that gives this engaging book its title
- and one which thoroughly confounds the notion of the idiot
footballer.
*Daily Mail*
The appeal of his astute story-telling is that this book works on
levels that reach far beyond football.
The Boy on the Shed reveals an impressive triumph of human
resilience over adversity as well as a truly gifted wordsmith.
*Sunday Mirror*
Quite simply one of the best football memoirs I've ever read and
I've worked my way through rather a lot. Paul Ferris writes
beautifully and weaves a fascinating tale that lures you into not
wanting to put this wonderful book down. A masterpiece of the
genre.
*Brian McNally*
Football memoirs rarely produce great literature but Ferris's The
Boy on the Shed is a glistening exception, which sets a short
career with Newcastle United against the backdrop of a Catholic
childhood in a protestant stronghold of Northern Ireland. He's
witty, emotional and painfully self-revealing. If, as Alan Shearer
intimates in the foreword, a second book is on the way, he may turn
out to be the new Frank McCourt.
*The Guardian*
Ferris writes so well about the sensation of playing that those who
have never kicked a ball are given a glimpse of how to be a
footballer. This is so much more than a memoir about the game,
however. This is rare male honesty about crippling shyness, love
and despair and so very moving about the relationship between a
mother and her son.
*Alyson Rudd, The Times*
If by any chance you like a good book and you are not averse to
sport, even football, take this recommendation. It is called The
Boy on the Shed and it was written by Paul Ferris. Ferris's story
is fascinating and stylishly told.
*The Sunday Times*
In a genre too often mired in platitudes, former Newcastle and
Northern Ireland winger Ferris's account of growing up Catholic in
Protestant Lisburn - and the football career that promised him a
way out - stands out for its honesty and humour.
*i Paper*
A fascinating life story, bearing much heart and soul as well as
being 'warts and all'. It is well worth reading for its honesty and
its insights by any reader and will be a particularly absorbing
read for anyone with an interest or love for 'the beautiful game'
as well as Ulster readers and those who remember the would-be local
football star from these shores.
*Irish Tatler*
This is a fascinating life story, bearing much heart and soul as
well as being warts and all'. It is well worth reading for its
honesty and its insights by any reader and will be a particularly
absorbing read for anyone with an interest or love for 'the
beautiful game'.
*Ulster Tatler*
A roller coaster read with appeal beyond football fans, this is a
tale of struggle and tragedy, of love and hope, and offers humbling
reality as an alternative to the traditional "rags to riches"
adventure.
*Daily Express*
In literary terms, his autobiography is far and away the best book
here. Not for nothing was it shortlisted for the William Hill
sports book of the year award. As with Nick Hornby's peerless
classic it will endure beyond a convenient Christmas stocking
filler for your dad. That's because it's not about sport, but
rather about the far bigger themes of family, pain, identity,
masculinity and loss.
*The Times*
The Boy on the Shed has enough depth and humanity to make your
average football autobiography look like a Ladybird book.
*The Telegraph*
Ferris's wonderful memoir represents a twin triumph ... and his
writing is a pure pleasure.
*The Times*
Ferris's book offers new insights into professional sport - and
what happens when the dream curdles.
*Irish Independent*
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