![]() Until I was six months old, we lived iněridge of Weir, a comfortable, leafy place just outside Glasgow.ĝad, who’d swum for Scotland at the age of fifteen, was a swimming baths manager there.Ěfter that, we moved to his home town, Port Glasgow, where he was to manage another pool.Ğverything would have been fine had he been able to keep his mouth shut, butĝad was a hard-drinking womanizer and competitive, as much with his children as with anyone else.Ěnd he was gobby, very gobby. In a sense, I had aěarras kind of a childhood. It’s a market – the roughest, most weird place, full of second-hand shit. Will I ever get there? You tell me.Ĭhapter One Dad The first thing I can remember? Theěarras in Glasgow. I’m just forty-one, and it seems, even to me, such an amazing and long journey in such a short time. This, then, is the story of that journey – so far. I sometimes think that if I were to stop working, I’d stop existing. I just keep going, moving as far away as possible from where I began. When I think about myself, I still see a little boy who is desperate to escape, and keen to please. I’m as driven as any man you’ll ever meet. It’s about success.ěeyond that, though, something else is at play. They probably think: that flash bastard.ěut my life, like most people’s, is about hard work. I’m running round, cursing and swearing, telling people what to do. I run several of the world’s best restaurants. I’ve got the wonderful family, the big house, the flash car. I don’t think people grasp the real me when they see me on television. In some cases, that’s because we were hardly there for more than five minutes.ěut in others, it’s because, as a boy, I was often afraid and ashamed, and always poor.Ěnd you don’t dwell on the details of a house if you connect it with being afraid, or ashamed, or poor. It’s funny how few of them I can remember. ![]() It’s Mum’s handwriting, and it’s a very long list of all the places we lived until I left home. Table ofĜontents Cover Page Title Page Dedication Foreword Chapter Oneĝad Chapter Twoğootball Chapter Three Getting Started Chapterğourğrench Leave Chapterğive OceansĚpart Chapter SixĚ Room of My Own Chapter Seven War ChapterĞight The Great Walk-Out Chapter Nine The Sweet Smell of Success Chapter Ten Welcome to the Small Screen ChapterĞleven New York, New York Quick Reads Other resources Copyright About the Publisherįoreword In my hand, I’ve got a piece of paper. ![]() To Mum, from cottage pie to Humble Pie – you deserve a medal.
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