WARDY BOOK REVIEWS
BOOKS
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 WHAT THE MEDIA SAY...'An absolute corker of a read. Once you've opened it, I guarantee you won't put it down until you've read the very last word.' Manchester Evening News 'It is a brutal story.' Liverpool Echo 'Mark Ward's autobiography is arguably the most lurid account yet of a footballer's time behind bars The content is pretty near the knuckle.' FourFourTwo magazine 'Should this book have been published? Absolutely. Is it worth reading? Definitely.' Newham & Ilford Recorder Liverpool Echo, June 2, 2009 by Dave Prentice On Monday, May 11, 2009, Prisoner NM6982 stepped back into the real world and became Mark Ward, former Everton footballer once again.It was the end of an appalling, yet enlightening journey.Sentenced in May 2005 to eight years imprisonment for renting a house in which cocaine with a street value of £645,000 was found, Ward accepts he had been extraordinarily stupid - "I made the biggest mistake of my life," he declared.But now he is trying to pick up the pieces.Part of that process is his autobiography - currently his only means of supporting himself - published on FA Cup final day under the frank title: Mark Ward: From Right Wing To B-Wing . . . Premier League to Prison. And it is a brutal story. Manchester Evening News, June 3, 2009 by Paul Hince At his trial, Mark pleaded guilty and was sent down for eight years. Towards the end of last week I answered my phone and who should be on the other end but Ward. He told me that because of his impeccable behaviour in prison he had been released four years early although he would remain on licence for the next four. He told me something else which I found inspiring. "In prison I started to keep a diary to help pass the time," he said. "And do you know what, I found out for the first time in my life that I could write. "As a player the only writing I ever did was when I signed an autograph book. But suddenly I found I could write properly. I could express myself fluently. It was simply a gift I never knew I possessed." Weekly, Mark sent his hand-written text to the publishers Football World in Essex, who turned his words into an autobiography aptly entitled From Right-Wing to B Wing . . . Premier League to Prison. Those publishers kindly sent me a copy of Mark's book and it's an absolute corker of a read. Cracking tales of his time at Oldham, West Ham, City and Everton. No self-pity at his fall from grace and imprisonment. Just an honest if harrowing account of how it all went wrong. Do yourselves a favour. If you see From Right-Wing to B-Wing in a bookshop near you, snap it up. Once you've opened it, I'll guarantee you won't put it down until you've read the very last word. Daily Telegraph, May 30 by Jim White The 100,000 words of his life story that he wrote on prison paper have just been published. This is no ordinary footballer's autobiography. After hitting rock bottom, Ward felt under no obligation to hide anything. As in his conversation, he is honest, direct, unrelenting in his self-analysis. The tales of prison life, of turning out for the lags' team, of smuggling in mobile phone simcards in unexpected anatomical places, mingle with a no-holds-barred account of his time as a player. The Independent, May 19, 2009 by Nick Harris Ward occupied himself by writing his life story, more than 100,000 words, by hand, on prison paper. He sent it out, bit by bit, to a publisher - an old friend from his West Ham days - who needed only to tidy up bits and pieces of grammar, no more. He says: "I'm proud of my book. It's just an honest account of my life, no bullshit." But he anticipates criticism from some quarters, from people saying he had fallen into obscurity but could become a public figure again now partly because of his prison time and book.Ward's book, From Right-Wing to B-Wing: Premier League to Prison, is certainly candid, from his broken home in Huyton via Everton rejection as a youth and the non-league back to the big time. There are escapades and run-ins with numerous well-known names, inside and outside football. The book also highlights how much attention players now get; and how easily they used to be able to dodge press attention. In one astonishing chapter, "Shooting the Pope", Ward reveals how, at a 1992 fancy dress Christmas party at Everton, he shot team-mate Barry Horne, dressed as the Pope, at close range, in the chest, with a real gun. Ward had pinched the weapon from a John Wayne look-a-like, thinking it was a cap gun. "The noise was staggering, unbelievable," Ward writes. "We were all stunned to see a massive flash of fire shoot from the barrel and Barry, who took a direct hit, was flung backwards. There'd been a bullet in the chamber. The saving mercy was that the bullet was a blank, designed to crumple and ignite on impact rather than explode. Still, Barry was knocked back, and he was on fire." Horne was duly extinguished, and while bruised and shocked, fine. That incident was never made public, nor were many others, from his run-in with a notorious gangster, aka The Blackmailer, to umpteen episodes of high jinx, on and off the field. Newham & Ilford Recorder, May 28, 2009 by Dave Evans MARK WARD was the only player that Hammers legend John Lyall signed without seeing him play. Stuart Pearce described him as the toughest player he ever came up against. He was a vital member of arguably the greatest ever West Ham team that finished third in Division One in 1986. But Ward will, undoubtedly, be best remembered in years to come as a shamed footballer; a footballer who was sentenced to eight years in prison after becoming involved in the drug trade. After serving four years of his stretch, Ward was released earlier this month, and to coincide with that he has teamed up with Tony McDonald, a veteran of books on the Hammers, to release his story - Mark Ward - From Right Wing to B Wing - Premier League to Prison. This book is gripping from start to finish, but it is also a moral conundrum. As the former West Ham winger discovered when appearing on radio last week, there are a lot of people out there who believe this book should never have been published. How can anyone convicted of a drugs offence be allowed to make money telling us how it all happened? Well, that is certainly a valid view, but anyone who has read this book would quickly realise how important it is to discover just how easily a highly-paid professional sportsman can get involved with the seedy, underbelly of society just as Ward did back in his native Liverpool. This is a no-holds barred tale of drinking, gambling, more drinking, more gambling and of course some top class football. Ward worships Lyall, hates Lou Macari, loves Howard Kendall, hates Mike Walker and that is a theme running all the way through this book. Everything is black or white. This is a book that takes us back to a world of football that we thought had all but disappeared. A world where a West Ham player can be treated disgracefully by his team-mates simply because of his sexual persuasion. The likes of Ledley King may still be hitting the headlines because of their love of a drink, the likes of Matty Etherington may face problems because of their gambling habits, but in the days of 'Wardy' it seems that it was the norm rather than the exception. It was the culture and for those who couldn't take it, there was a downward spiral which led, in Ward's case, to jail. The winger's description of his first months in prison is certainly harrowing, but many will say that he deserved it, while his constant insistence on his peripheral role in the crimes that sent him to prison, do not do him any favours. The hell that is Walton Prison, turned eventually to an open prison and home visits, outdoor work and the sort of incarceration that would have a Daily Mail reader choking on his cornflakes. Few are spared Ward's criticism, including a notorious Liverpool gangster, while West Ham fans will be overjoyed to read a couple of anecdotes about Paul Ince. But what comes over in the end is that Mark Ward was at best naïve, at worst up to his neck in the drug trade. But most of all, he was a good footballer who in the end wasted so much of his talent. Should this book have been published? Absolutely. Is it worth reading? Definitely. Various football websites by Tim Sansom Even though we like to buy them, we often discover that a number of books from football stars, have been nothing more than an effortless list of which cup did they win and when they gained their international caps. I am convinced that some fans think that being a footballer means a simple journey from the school team to the punditry studio via county trials, a procession of clubs leading to a top four Premiership outfit, a collection of international caps, a World-cup winning goal, management glory, and retirement by the pool in a Hertfordshire mansion. Mark Ward's autobiography can act as the hangover cure to these dreams of footballing excess. It is difficult for us to believe that football is nothing more than the WAG culture, but this book is required reading for fans to help us realise that not all footballers have strolled off into the sun screaming that they are "millionaires!" These pages make for eerie, often uncomfortable, but utterly compelling reading. When I was getting used to a remote control in my childhood days, I can remember many wet Sunday afternoons being filled with a 1970s disaster movie on the TV. Whether it was The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure or the Airport disaster movies, these blockbusters would follow a similar plot line. You knew what would eventually happen, but you were still gripped as the tension was slowly built up by a serious of seemingly mundane events over the proceeding hours. We all knew that the Hollywood A-Listers, such as Steve McQueen, Gene Hackman, and Paul Newman would be going about their daily business before all hell would break loose when the boat sank, the tower block collapsed in a ball of fire, or the aeroplane bomber pressed the trigger. This plot line is played out in this book, although this tension is begun in the present. Mark Ward's introduction begins in the prison van as he is driven past Goodison Park on the way to HMP Liverpool Walton. He has pleaded guilty for dealing in cocaine. He hears the news report from Radio City and the shame oozes from the pages. Because we know how this book will end, the subsequent journey through Ward's career from his humble upbringing in Huyton in very poignant. We journey through his total devastation after being rejected by his beloved Everton in 1981, through the restoration of his confidence at non-league Northwich Victoria. It is an emotional experience, but Ward tells the tale with refreshing honesty. Mark Ward was a young footballer trying to realise his dream as a professional footballer while holding down a part-time job in the local bakery. You could never suggest that this player had everything given to him on a silver spoon. Ward's big break slowly happens at Oldham Athletic, then a significant move to West Ham. We get an interesting insight into life at Upton Park during the mid 1980s. It is obviously that Ward has the utmost respect for John Lyall, as well as the key Hammers stars of the period including Alvin Martin and Alan Devonshire. As the story is told, certain tales provide warning lights for the future. There is a sense that whilst West Ham are achieving their highest league place finish (to date) Ward's lifestyle was certainly manic on certain days, and often totally out of control on occasions. As well as John Lyall, Mark Ward's respect for Howard Kendall jumps out of this book. Unlike in some football books where the manager is given a slight begrudging name check, Ward does not skimp on his tributes. You sense that with the benefit of hindsight that he is writing with a sense of guilt about what happens to him, after periods at Manchester City, Everton, Birmingham City and a slow descent through non league clubs, to some teams that seem to resemble nothing more than the most dodgy of Sunday morning pub teams. After failed business ventures, and a journey into a typhoon of betting and drinking, Mark Ward becomes involved in an agreement to rent a house that became a drugs stash for an associate. Like the ‘disaster' in the disaster movie, or the marathon runner reaching the wall in a race, rock bottom is reached for Mark Ward as he realises that everything has collapsed around him. An Evertonian policeman arrests one of his footballing idols, and a spell around various jails in the North West of England awaits in the coming years. What is refreshing is that the book does not collapse into a corny soap opera storyline full or recrimination and easy-on-the-eye storylines. We get an interesting but graphic insight into Liverpool's Walton jail, and Ward's slow and graphic realisation about what happened to him. We feel the sense of claustrophobic isolation in the prison cell, and the attempts to fit in with prison culture. In the final chapters, we are told the nervous meeting of Howard Kendall, Duncan Ferguson and Ward in the prison's visitor quarters. It is easy to sense the shame and guilt of Ward at this meeting. Those 1970s disaster movies usually ended with someone like Charlton Heston managing to land the plane in a fog bound airport (which was usually in Miami or New York) with the whole of the fuselage in tatters, or the survivors of the sunken ship making an effortless journey to the lifeboats to make a heroic return to the port. It is difficult to know if Ward's life is back on the straight and narrow like those movies. He was due to be released on Monday, May 11, 2009, and must be in the early weeks of acclimatisation, but he has written this book which is a sobering but an essential tale of a footballer's life, which must have been difficult to tell. |
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