Tom Palmer – football writer

Guest blogger @tompalmerauthor describes how, for him, football was the key to unlocking a passion for reading.

My books are about football. They are aimed at children.

I write them because I like football and because, when I was just a little boy, I hated reading. My Football Academy and Foul Play stories are the kind of books that might have got me into reading back then, the kind of books that could have changed my life.

I got into reading through football. Through Leeds United. It was the Yorkshire Evening Post that did it for me. My mum would show me a headline, then coax me into reading more about what I really had to know. She was clever like that.

Now I am a reader. Now I am a writer.

Sadly my mum is dead. She never saw me become a writer. But I’m glad she saw me become a reader, because that is the more important thing.

Reading changed my life enormously. Once I got it, I was off. Literally. I landed a YTS job in the 80s, then other low-paid occupations. I would save up all my holiday for once month in the summer, when I would travel round Europe, inspired by the books I had read.

Those books and those journeys helped me grow. In a hundred ways.

Now my job is to get other children to like reading. Boys in particular. I talk to 100,000 kids a year – in schools and libraries – telling them that reading can change their lives, give them opportunities beyond their dreams.

I don’t do it in a didactic way. I do it with a blow up goal and a sponge ball.

On Saturday 23^rd June I will be at Waterstone’s bookshop in Leeds hosting a penalty shoot-out, surrounded by thousands of books. I will talk to the children about what they like to read. I will let them compete for a trophy by taking penalties. It will be fun.

Yes, I will also be trying to get them to buy my new book, Black Op, a spy-thriller set during Euro 2012. That’s part of my job too. Selling books. That’s how I earn money.

The day after my event, England will beat Italy. Later in the week we will go on to beat Germany, then, in the final, Spain.

It’ll be my pleasure to start a great football week with my event.

Come on England!

Tom Palmer will be hosting his afternoon of football fun at Waterstones Leeds, Albion Street from 2-4pm on Saturday 23^rd June.

Find out more about Tom at www.tompalmer.co.uk and follow him on Twitter at @tompalmerauthor