Rip Roaring Potters

Q & A with steve mifflin (author of stoke book exiled in the promised land)

by northy on 21/10/09 at 5:42 pm

Steve mifflin is the author of one of the many stoke city related books starting to surface of late. Here he answers a few questions posed by rip roaring potters.

RRP – Hi steve and thanks for your time, my missus is getting me your book for christmas so i’ll be honest and say i haven’t read it yet. What’s the book about and why did you decide to write it?

[Stephen Mifflin] The book is simply my view of Stoke’s season last year. It’s a combination of personal stories mixed up with the games along with some opinions along the way. I didn’t start the season thinking I’d write a book. It was just something that evolved. I knew I’d get to most of the games and expected last year to generate a pretty special story. I had originally intended to write a blog, but didn’t get round to it in the first half of the season. I was out of work from Feb to Apr and that gave me the time to actually write the bulk of the book.

RRP – It’s a hard slog going home and away, i haven’t completed a season for many a year due to various reasons and i really miss that buzz of being there week in week out. Do you manage to encapsulate the spirit and passion, the highs and lows of being a travelling potter within the pages?

[Stephen Mifflin] I have to be honest and say I loved pretty much every minute of last season even when the games were going against us. The support home and away was phenominal and this meant it wasn’t a slog at all. It’s really difficult to capture the spirit and passion in a book. Ultimately you had to be there, but the reviews and feedback suggest people think it does go someway to capturing the essence of what was a very special time for a lot of people last season.

RRP – Talking of high’s and lows what are yours as a stoke fan since you first went in 1979. I started going in 1980 so have also seen many ups and downs, the macari seasons were fantastic for me and some of the lows have definitely been in the early years of the brit with no atmosphere and songs just dire football and endless delilahs. Obviously where we at now is also incredible and a sure fire high. Yours?

[Stephen Mifflin] It feels like there are more downs than ups over the 30 years I’ve supported Stoke. High points are the playoff final in Cardiff, the Autoglass at Wembley and the promotion seasons, particular promotion to The Prem which for me came very unexpectedly. As for the lows, not sure where to start, but the 17 point season in 1984/5 has to be the worst. It was humiliating for the club and the fans. After that was probably losing to Leicester in the playoff semi-final. I had felt sure that was our moment.

RRP – How have the sales of the book been going and do you have any plans for a second one?

[Stephen Mifflin] The interest in the book has been much better than I dared hope. It’s not with a mainstream publisher, so there is no associated publicity. It’s also set up on “print on demand”, so book shops don’t physically stock it. It can be ordered from any retailer, but you can’t just walk in and pick it up off the shelf. This means Amazon is probably the best and cheapest place to get hold of a copy and the sales on Amazon have already far exceeded my expectation. Alternatively Rob Ledgar from stoketshirts.co.uk has signed copies that can be bought on-line or off the stalls he has at various events in and around Stoke-on-Trent.

[Stephen Mifflin] I think the really nice thing is the kind words people like Dave Johnson from The Sentinel (and author of Tie Me To The Mast) and Dave Lee from The Oatcake (and author of You Could’na Make It Up) have said in their reviews. Stoke people have been very generous in helping out with promotion. I’m afraid there won’t be a second book even though ultimatetly I have really enjoyed the experience of writing the first one. I underestimated how much effort is required to get something up to standard for publishing and don’t really have the time to commit to a follow up.

RRP – Thanks again steve, just to finish can i have your favourite ever stoke player/match and your favourite band. Nice one.
[Stephen Mifflin] Favourite player: Garth Crooks (favourite current player Abdoulaye Faye)

Favourite band: The Police

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