AUTHOR'S MEMORIES OF CLOUGHIE...
RECOUNTED AT SPECIAL BOOK EVENT
The author Duncan Hamilton recounted more memories of working with Cloughie, when he spoke at a special event in Nottingham and signed copies of his award-winning book 'Provided You Don't Kiss Me.' He described how it had taken him just a month and a half to write the book, which was named the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2007.
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Duncan was asked by a member of the audience what he thought Cloughie himself would have made of the book and the fact that Duncan, the sports reporter who used to interview him, was now on stage talking about Old Big 'Ead. "I think he would be amazed. He would be surprised by the success of the book. And if he knew it had won the William Hill award, he would have sent round a bottle of champagne."
The event was held at the Broadway venue (June 2008) and marked the publication of the paperback edition of the book, which contains extra features not included in the hardback. On stage, Duncan was in conversation with the playwright Stephen Lowe, who penned the tribute production 'Old Big 'Ead in the Spirit of the Man.'
Duncan described what it was like to work as a newspaper reporter, dealing with Cloughie on a regular basis over a period of about twenty years. "Sometimes I would see him at nine-o-clock on a Monday morning and I got enough copy to last me a week," he said. Duncan was asked how Cloughie would deal with the type of media coverage of today. He replied it was entirely different these days, with stage-managed press conferences - unlike the impromptu meetings Cloughie often had with journalists. "He used to phone me up if there was a reader's letter he didn't like in the Football Post. Can you imagine if he'd been looking at one of the Forest blogs these days? He would have been on the phone all the time."
Duncan was asked how he thought Cloughie would have got on if he'd been made the England manager. "He would have had a hard time as England manager," said the author. "He would have been great with the football side of things. He wanted to move the FA to South Yorkshire. He would have have had one enormous bust-up within the first six months of starting the job."
There was a signing session at the end of the event, in which Cloughie fans could also spend a few minutes talking to Duncan about the book and their memories.
The event began with some fantastic archive film and TV footage of Cloughie, lasting around twenty-five minutes. It started with a black and white recording of a 'team-talk' and interview when he was Derby County manager in 1968. Other clips included his first day at Nottingham Forest and the famous moment when he told a young Trevor Francis to get his hands out of his pockets as he was presented with an award. "You are a very talented young man," said Clough.
Among the many other fascinating clips was the press call for the signing of Trevor Francis (when Cloughie arrived holding a squash racquet and joked with the assembled media) and an amusing interview before Forest's second European Cup final. The film, including match footage of several cup finals, brought back some marvellous memories, which were great to see on the big screen.