Kerry Dixon - Up Front

[KEV67]

I have just finished Kerry Dixon's autobiography, Up Front. Well actually, I expect it was ghost written by Harry Harris. However, it does sound like the player's voice, so I expect Harris helped shape the book, probably typed it up, maybe asked pertinent questions, but that it was mainly Dixon's input.

 

Kerry Dixon was a favourite player. I liked the Dixon-Speedie partnership. I liked Pat Niven. I liked that Chelsea team. Dixon was a great striker. I thought he was a bit vain and a bit thick, but he seemed like a good lad, who never seemed to lose his temper and rarely got booked. As it turned out, he was not thick, but he was not wise. Later I read in the papers he was in financial trouble through gambling. Then much later I was surprised to hear he had gone to prison for GBH. I thought someone must have really rattled his cage or that he had been under a lot of stress, because he had been an even-tempered player.

 

These sportsmen memoires can be odd books. I was struggling a bit with it. When I read a chapter I would think it was good, but then I would not feel like reading the next chapter. Actually I thought the best bits were the later chapters, which I had been dreading the most.

[itsmeagain]

Speedie and Dixon, excellent players. 

I agree football bios can be awkward and poorly written. 

I read Tony Cottee

Martin O'Neill. 

Tony Currie 

over the years. Variable content and quality really.