Paul McGrath is Ireland’s best loved sportsman and also its least understood. An iconic football presence during a professional career stretching over 14 years he played for his country in the European Championship finals of 1988 and the World Cup finals of 1990 and 1994. But behind the implied glamour of life in the employ of great English clubs like Manchester United and Aston Villa McGrath wrestled with a range of destructive emotions that made his success in the game little short of miraculous. That story has until now never been told. It is a story that runs from a hard hidden childhood spent in Dublin’s orphanages all the way to the pain of two marriage break-ups and the struggle to cope with life after football. Quite apart from his all too public struggle with alcoholism the story runs through the surreal highs and calamitous lows of a life lived habitually on the edge of chaos. It is not just a football story. It is an extraordinary human story that is certain to surprise with its candour.Here for the first time read about the father he never met; the mother whose love never died; the routine loneliness and ritual bullying endured by a black kid growing up behind closed doors in 1960s Dublin; the emotional breakdown suffered on leaving that institution; the recovery that – remarkably – brought him all the way to Old Trafford; the rollercoaster ride that followed. Here the guilt fear self-loathing are all laid bare in a story fired with hope and determination for the future. It may well be the most candid sports book ever written.

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Dave Pelzer was brutally beaten and starved by his emotionally unstable alcoholic mother a mother who played tortuous unpredictable games – games that left one of her three sons nearly dead. She no longer considered Dave a son but a slave; no longer a boy but an ‘it’. His bed was an old army cot in the basement his clothes were torn and smelly and when he was allowed the luxury of food it was scraps from the dog’s bowl. The outside world knew nothing of the nightmare played out behind closed doors. But throughout Dave kept alive dreams of finding a family to love him. This book covers the early years of his life and is an affecting an inspirational book of the horrors of child abuse and the steadfast determination of one child to survive. ‘Dave Pelzer conveys brilliantly how his own determination allowed him to keep alive his dream of one day find a family who would be proud to call him their son. Truly touching and emotionally shocking. A marvel’ Best

Price : £ 5.19

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