One in a Million!
We last featured Keith Dixon, our Non-Executive Director, back in June of 2017, where we detailed Keith’s vast business experience, and the key values and skills he possesses to help drive we clean forward.
We recently sat down again with Keith, as he has just published his 11th book, which he co-authored with none other than the footballing legend, Trevor Francis.
As a lifelong Blue Nose, Keith was inspired to first write books when he realised there weren’t any books written about his beloved Birmingham City, something he quickly changed by self-publishing his first book in 2003.
One in a Million, Keith’s latest book takes the reader through Trevor’s career in which he shot to fame as the youngest player to score four goals in a match, before continuing to break records as the very first £1 million footballer, a mind-blowing figure at the time. He then went on to have a glittering career, most notably at Birmingham City and Nottingham Forest as well as various other clubs, whilst also picking up 52 international caps for England. Trevor then stepped into the world of football management, where he took charge of Sheffield Wednesday, Crystal Palace and Birmingham City, who he took to the final of the League Cup in 2001!
We spoke to Keith to gain insight into his time as an Author, and of course to find out more about his new best-selling book:
So how did you become an author? What inspired you to begin writing books?
“I became irritated when there were no Blues books, and so I was very keen to change this. My first book was written to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the opening of St Andrews, and I’ve been fortunate to continue writing books, with One in a Million being my 11th!”
How was the idea for this book generated? Was Trevor immediately on board or did you have to persuade him?
“I was very fortunate to have Trevor’s contact details, and I approached him in 2017 to write the foreword for a previous book of mine, The Blues Insider, and to my surprise he said yes.
So, a year later, I approached him once more to see if he would be interested in an autobiography on his career, although he was uncertain about this as he had already had two books written about him. I briefed him on a story but I really had to persuade him, as you can imagine he is a busy man but eventually he came around, and agreed to a book which would be chronological and encyclopaedic and talk about every aspect of his footballing career, including many fascinating revelations and it really does take the reader into every aspect of the game. It’s a proper football book!”
Who chose the name for the book?
“Trevor chose the name for this book, something which is usually done by the publisher, and we then worked tirelessly for 14 months, we’re both fastidious people and scrutinised over every word – of which there ended up being over 60,000!
This book contains 100% truth, its exciting and gripping, and Trevor doesn’t hold back within some parts, where other people may not name names, Trevor does, which I really think adds to the book.”
Can you sum up your overall experience of co-authoring this book with Trevor?
“I’m really proud of this book and incredibly grateful to Trevor for giving up so much of his time and working so hard on the book, we both feel like we’ve really produced a great body of work, which is compelling and exciting, and hope that people enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it!”
