As everyone who has read the fantastic Stieg Larsson, My Friend knows, November was always an extremely turbulent month for Larsson and his closest friend, the book’s author Kurdo Baksi.
One of the most important days of all was the 30th, when the two would give lectures and have articles printed about racism in order to combat the Swedish neo-Nazi rallies also on this date.
In memory of this we are pleased to bring you a special message from Kurdo Baksi, below which is an opportunity to win an amazing prize.
I MISS STIEG LARSSON EVERY 30th NOVEMBER 30.11.11
I miss Stieg Larsson so much every 30th November. Even today.
30th November was a very important day in both our lives before Stieg left our planet. This day is also important for the Swedish neo-Nazis and racists because the king Charles XII of Sweden was killed on the 30th of November 1718. According to Swedish racists Charles XII of Sweden tried to create a large Swedish empire and that is why they have a memorial and demonstration for him every year in Stockholm.
30th of November is also an anti-racist day because anti-racists try to stop neo-Nazi demonstrations. And, Stieg and I were always two of those who participated at this anti-rascist demonstration.
But, we also did more on this day. Every year we published some articles in the largest newspapers in Sweden. Sometimes our articles were signed by all the leaders of the political parties and the Prime Minister, sometimes we published just together. Sometimes our article was published just in one newspaper, but sometimes we published the same article in 90 newspapers in Sweden!
We also organized lectures against racism, Nazism and xenophobia this day somewhere in Stockholm every year.
This 30th November I will not do so much because my friend Stieg has changed the planet. But I will dedicate a lecture about his life.
The circle is closed now.
KURDO BAKSI
The Author of “My friend Stieg Larsson”
To honour Stieg Larsson’s work we have a competition running from now until the 20th of December on here and on the MacLehose Press blog. Simply write why you loved the Millennium trilogy in 100 words or less.
The 10 best entries will receive a free copy of the “Afterword” (only available in the special Millennium Boxset) which collects together a number of essays on Larsson’s work as well as some of the author’s emails.
Please, write your answers in the comments box and show your support for one of the most important authors of the last decade.
We’ve asked some of our favourite guests to have a long, hard think about a book that has had a profound affect on them at some point in their lives. It might have been an inspirational book that’s influenced their lifestyle or a book they read whilst growing up or maybe one they regularly read to their children.
Whatever the reason, we’ve asked them to pick their favourite, and we can guarantee that all the books make fantastic reading. As an added bonus each book has been signed by the guest and inscribed with the reason the book is so special to them. And we’d like you to nominate a group or club that deserves the books.
To enter please answer the following three questions:
Please tell us about the group and why they deserve to receive the books.
What will the group do with the books?
Who will benefit from receiving them?
Email your nominations to gabby@channel5.com using Gabby’s Books for Christmas as your subject line, along with your name, daytime telephone number and nomination.
Or post them to
LIVE With Gabby
Princess Productions
3rd Floor
151 Queensway
London
W2 4YN
The deadline for entries 2pm on Friday 9 December 2011.
Channel 5’s Standard Competition Terms & Conditions and Additional Terms & Conditions apply.
Very excited to have with us on the couch this week, author of the stunning biography of his friend David Haye, Elliot Worsell. Elliot has been Haye’s closest friend and Making Haye is as intimate and detailed an account of the boxer’s career as could possibly be. We caught up with Elliot to ask him about the book and about sports writing in general.
Daniel Fraser: You have been David Haye’s closest confidante for a long time now but I was wondering if you could tell us how the two of you first met and how your close friendship began to develop?
Elliot Worsell: I first met David Haye in late 2003 at Bethnal Green’s York Hall, the so-called ‘home of British boxing’. David was watching boxing at the venue that December night, and I was reporting on the action from ringside. I was only seventeen at the time. Halfway through the night’s action I spotted David lingering towards the back of the hall and made a beeline for him, figuring I had nothing better to do during the excruciatingly long intervals that commonly occur between bouts in this country.
So, with half an hour or so to kill, I approached David, asked him for a brief interview and then bombarded him with inappropriate questions, before revealing the extent of my man-crush on boxer Roy Jones, Jr., an unhealthy obsession we apparently both had in common. Haye too was a fan of the American great and, from that point on, we stayed in touch, me chasing the young cruiserweight for various phone interviews and him doing all he could to send me through to voicemail. David gave me his number and a chance that December evening, and I’ve been thankful for both ever since.
Daniel Fraser: Do you think there are any distinct advantages to the career-focused biography approach you adopted and the, now traditional,Sports star autobiography format?
Elliot Worsell: In all honesty, this was the only type of story I could write about David Haye. Yes, there was the option of producing a more conventional sports biography and tackling the subject from an outsider’s point of view, but that wouldn’t necessarily be the truthful version of events. I would almost feel as if I had cheated on the eight years of access and insight Haye had provided me with along the way. It wasn’t easy writing myself into the story, and it wasn’t something I particularly enjoyed, but it was vital to the story I wanted to tell.
In addition to being an in-depth account of David Haye’s professional career and life, ‘Making Haye’ is also a simple story about a young writer who met a young fighter and embarked on an unlikely boxing journey together. In many ways, rather than a simple meat and potatoes biography, I wanted to create something along the lines of ‘Fever Pitch’, only with a boxer in place of a football team. That was how I pictured it in my mind, at least.
Daniel Fraser: How did you become a boxing writer? Was it something you had always wanted to do?
Elliot Worsell: Boxing and football have always been my two foremost passions in life, at least as far as sports go. Football was my first love, and then boxing sucker-punched me from out wide at around the age of ten or eleven. While all the children at school had something to say about the weekend’s football matches, nobody but me could offer an opinion on the latest Lennox Lewis or ‘Prince’ Naseem Hamed world title defence. That gave me an edge, and I got a kick out of staying up late on a Saturday night and watching a sport that was deemed taboo in many other households.
My interest in actually writing about boxing was the result of a love of English Language at school and an aversion to the idea of actually competing in the ring for real. Despite doing a spot of training and sparring at sixteen, I didn’t necessarily want to be a boxer. In truth, I still felt I would make it as a professional footballer at the time. So, in order to stay close to the boxing game, without actually getting hit, I decided to combine passions – writing and fighting – and pen a series of fight reports, interviews and colour pieces, initially for boxing websites and then later Boxing News and Boxing Monthly magazines.
Daniel Fraser: If you hadn’t become a writer, what do you think you’d be doing today?
A: I’d like to think I would be playing football, either for Aldershot Town in League Two, or, if we’re dealing with fantasy here, perhaps Aston Villa in the Premier League. Okay, shooting even higher than that, how about Barcelona, alongside Messi, Xavi and Iniesta? Aside from writing, playing professional football has been the only other thing I’ve ever wanted to do. A dream of playing football carried me from the ages of eight to sixteen, and then this writing adventure took shape soon after that, conveniently at the moment I realised I wasn’t and never would be as good as Wayne Rooney.
Daniel Fraser: There is a famous quote that ‘writing about music is like dancing about architecture’ do you think in some sense this could apply to writing about sport? If so how do you circumvent it?
Elliot Worsell: I’m not necessarily writing about boxing or the physical act of fighting – I am writing about boxers, human beings. The physical act will obviously play its part at some point, but, on the whole, the joy of writing about boxers comes from the fact that very few sportsmen are as interesting, confusing, haunted and honest.
Fight reports are enjoyable to write on one level – the idea of describing in words something so visual and visceral is always a challenge – but the real satisfaction is derived from following a prizefighter in the throes of preparation or the fight itself. During those quiet moments you will never seen an athlete so exposed, vulnerable and truthful. If you relish penning character studies, boxing is undoubtedly the sport for you.
Daniel Fraser: You have managed to become successful at a young age. What qualities do you think have helped you the most in getting ahead in your field?
Elliot Worsell: In terms of getting to this point, the key ingredients were blind passion and determination. I now treat writing and storytelling with the exact same childish enthusiasm I displayed when following Aston Villa or collecting Panini stickers as a football-mad kid. It truly is the first thing I think about in the morning and the last thing I think about when I go to sleep, and nothing makes me happier than when crafting a solid story or unravelling an intriguing interview subject.
Many people will say they love doing something, but their actions often belie such throwaway comments. Writing is very much a ‘doing’ activity. You can spend your whole life talking about something, but, ultimately, the proof sits on the page and, more often than not, in a profession like this you’ll have to work and create in periods of uncertainty. It’s never a sure thing. The people who are willing to persevere and write in the midst of that insecurity, typically for free, are the ones that truly love it and will do whatever’s necessary to succeed. Everybody else will just talk about it.
I worked a lot for free in the early days, and I did so for two reasons – one, because contacts were more important to me than money at that early stage in my life, and two, because I knew that so long as I wanted it badly enough, it would all come back around in the end. Of course, that theory has helped me get this far, but I don’t exactly consider myself successful right now. I still have a long way to go to achieve what I want to achieve as a writer. So long as I stick with that idea of working towards a greater goal, though, I’m hoping I’ll do alright for myself.
Daniel Fraser: What are you working on now?
Elliot Worsell: Now that the David Haye book is wrapped up, I’m looking to piece together a boxing book I’ve been working on intermittently for the past few months. Rather than focusing on just one competitor in the sport, this second book will offer an insight into a number of mindsets from each of the different stages of a boxer’s career – from early beginnings as a young amateur to world champion professional and every step in between.
I’ve always been intrigued by the way in which a boxer prepares for the wholly unnatural concept of a prizefight, and this story gives me the opportunity to compare and contrast how boxers across the board – of all shapes, sizes, levels of experience and achievement – go about it. While the Haye book was obviously something very dear to my heart, I’m hoping this boxing book will give me a far broader canvas on which to paint and explore the actual sport and its participants in far greater detail. In saying that, there may still be a chapter or two of the Haye story left to write, of course.
Daniel Fraser: Have you considered writing any fiction?
Elliot Worsell: I’m always trying to write fiction. In fact, writing fiction has been a dream of mine since I first studied English Language at school. My fiction comes in waves of novels, short stories and screenplays. It’s something I’ve always done and still try to do whenever spare time presents itself. Looking back, I probably have at least twenty unseen, full-length screenplays and novels stored somewhere on my hard-drive, written over a period of nearly ten years, most of which are awful, some tolerable, maybe one or two mediocre enough to one day show somebody else. But, yes, as soon as the opportunity arrives, I will jump into fiction writing with both feet, safe in the knowledge that I’ll never again have to transcribe an hour-long interview. Rest assured, my imagination works far better than my dictaphone.
Daniel Fraser: Do you have a favourite other sports writer?
Elliot Worsell: As far as boxing writing, you can’t go wrong with either Budd Schulberg or W.C. Heinz. Both were writing way before my time – and their time, in many ways – but their work stands up today and offers insights into eras of prizefighting that my youth robbed me of ever experiencing.
A more modern boxing book, and one I consider a genuine inspiration, is Donald McRae’s Dark Trade. I first read that book as a teenager, and it’s fair to say it motivated me to one day stalk prizefighters and tell the world about it. It remains the best boxing book I’ve read to this day. Stylistically, I also love the work of writers like Gay Talese and George Plimpton, who both made the simple concept of hanging out with their subjects into something of an art form. Gay Talese’s article on Floyd Patterson, titled ‘The Loser’, is probably the most powerful and poignant piece of boxing writing I’ve ever read.
Daniel Fraser: What do you like to read outside of your own field? Do you have a favourite author?
Elliot Worsell: The works of George Orwell, Vladimir Nabokov, Truman Capote, Hunter S. Thompson, Philip Roth and Cormac McCarthy have all influenced and intimidated me in equal measure.
Daniel Fraser: What advice would you give to another young person who wanted to get into sports writing?
Elliot Worsell: If you’re willing to do it for free until the day you die, then you’re both stupid and likely to get somewhere. It’s true, you should never do anything for free unless you have to, but, in the case of writing, it probably helps to be a little bit stupid and a little bit desperate.
If you can still crack a smile without a penny in your pocket, happy to know you’re writing something just for yourself, then you’re probably in the right game and headed down the right path. Don’t just talk about it, or even just do it – live it, think and talk of nothing else. Also, money means nothing if you don’t have contacts. Contacts help me see, literally and figuratively. Oh, and nobody ever wrote a book while on Facebook or Call of Duty.
To kick things off this week we thought it would be a good idea to catch up with some of the more scattered press The Invisible Ones, Stef Penney’s follow up to the Costa Award winning The Tenderness of Wolves, has been getting all over the media.
It really is a remarkable read and further proof that Stef has a real talent for a brooding and exceptionally written mystery.
To read the reviews in full, please click on the links below:
The gypsy community in Britain is a very difficult subject to write about well. There has been a huge amount in the press recently and most of the commentary I read is either explicitly or implicitly racist or, at the opposite end of the spectrum, worthy. This book is neither. It presents a classic missing persons investigation and takes you through the various stages until a resolution of sorts is reached.
In doing so, there are enough twists and turns to satisfy the most demanding of crime readers but in fact the true value of this book is its writing. It beautifully describes modern Britain – the schools, the busy hospitals, the travelling sites abutting wealthy housing, the pubs. Once I had got hold of my replacement copy I couldn’t put the book down. And you can’t really ask for more than that.
One of The Invisible Ones’ main strengths is that the insular Romany world is a fascinating setting for a novel. There is even a glossary of Romany terms at the end, but I found that I didn’t actually need it, so well does Penney sprinkle the Romany culture into the narrative. She manages to weave the culture’s rich history throughout the fabric of the book and is adept at contrasting the worlds of tradition with the modern. She explores the bonds and secrets that bind family particularly well, especially in a community which is suspicious of the outside world.
Reactions to Reading not only wrote a great review but championed the audiobook too:
a great read which I would recommend…and a novel that is driven more by compelling characters and atmosphere than a thrilling plot. If you are an audiobook fan I would highly recommend Daniel Stevens’ narration which is one of the very best I’ve heard since I started listening seriously (20+ books a year) several years ago.
The Invisible Ones is the product of a great intellect. It is a noir family saga with compassion and a social conscience, and stands up not just as a crime yarn but as a complex work of fiction. It also confirms for us that Stef Penney is no one-hit wonder. Make no mistake, there is plenty more where this came from.
All in all we’re delighted the book is being so well received in such a variety of well-known and more unusual media.
And finally, here is a fabulous video of Stef Penney discussing the book:
Today we’re casting our spotlight on Big Phil Campion’s Born Fearless. An incredible account of his journey through childhood, into the SAS and on to being a private military contractor in some of the most dangerous places on earth. A truly remarkable account.
Not dead yet. Not kidnapped, captured, tortured or killed. But he’s come bloody close… Meet ‘Big’ Phil Campion. To his fellow operators he’s a private military contractor.
To you or me he’s a mercenary, a soldier of fortune, a gun for hire selling violence to the highest bidder. But to Big Phil it’s all just another chapter in a life spent fighting in the shadows.
Abandoned. Run-away. Half-beaten to death. Blown-up. Locked up. And all before the age of twenty. This is the incredible true story of how Phil Campion survived all of that, and went on to complete Commando selection, Para selection, and to join the SAS – before fighting as a mercenary in the world’s toughest war zones.
Here’s the man himself talking about his experiences:
You can also have a look at our interactive flipbook for an extract from the book.
