Keith Mansfield

It’s the Fourth of July, the day when the United States celebrates its independence from Britain. When I lived in America as a child, I remember watching a brilliant Fourth of July parade in a town called Cody, Wyoming, home of Buffalo Bill no less.

Nowadays, I can’t hear the words “Independence Day” without thinking of the epic movie, with mankind defeating alien invaders against all the odds. Some of the film is superbly written, including President Bill Pullman’s rousing speech outside Area 51 to his ragtag bunch of fighter pilots, tasked with bringing down an alien mother ship.

“In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join will join with others from around the world and you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. ‘Mankind’ … that word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can’t be consumed by our petty differences anymore … Perhaps it’s fate tat today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom – not from tyranny, oppression or persecution, but from annihilation. We’re fighting for our right to live – to exist.  And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American hooliday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice:

“We will not go quietly into the night.

“We will not vanish without a fight.

“We’re going to live on.

“We’re going to survive.

“Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!”

Just thinking about that scene brings a tear to my eye, and it’s especially relevant at the moment as I write the third Johnny Mackintosh book, provisionally entitled Johnny Mackintosh: Battle for Earth. And I know that any great rallying speeches had better hit the spot, just in case Hollywood comes calling for the movie rights.

Happy Fourth of July to all my American friends!

Posted in Film, Johnny Mackintosh
Tags: Area 51, Bill Pullman, Buffalo Bill, Cody, Fourth of July, Wyoming

It’s only the early days of the World Cup, but already I’m struggling with the constant bee swarm sound of the vuvuzelas, infusing my every waking moment and beginning to permeate my dreams. It reminds me of a dimly remembered episode of The Tomorrow People, from my childhood, where one of the gang was learning to play the drums (with most other kids in town). It turned out that, when they beat out the same rhythm in unison, it would allow some evil alien to return to take over the world.

In the same way, perhaps the dreadful droning is intended to bring the Krun or the Andromedans or some other aliens down to Earth, visiting South Africa District 9 style, or maybe it’s just an alien conspiracy to send everyone in the world mad so they can more easily takeover. I digress…

The Johnny Mackintosh stories may be about space and aliens, but they’re also firmly rooted in football. Johnny himself lives and breathes footy, and I think it’s important he plays a match in every book. When he time travels in the first book, he even works out what day it is by seeing which football match is on the TV. I’m certain that, if the Spirit of London is home on Earth at the moment, he’ll be watching the games and becoming just as exasperated by the incessant vuvuzelas horns as I am. You could say, what Quidditch is to Harry Potter, football is to Johnny Mackintosh.

I played to a reasonable standard growing up, always captain of school and college and club teams. For me, the football in the books helps ground Johnny’s life on Earth, giving readers something they can relate to. Why does he get dropped from the school team? Why do they always seem to train on cold, wet evenings on exposed playing fields? And isn’t it really unfair Johnny has to run all the way back to the changing rooms to collect the half-time orange segments that no school football match would be without?

I worked really hard to make the description of the actual play within the books both realistic, and even useful for readers wanting to improve their play. But there’s another reason why football is in the books – it’s a lure to draw in the so-called “reluctant readers” into the wonders of the literary world. If people can read, relate to and be excited by my descriptions of playing for the school team, they’ll hopefully start to read other books too.

When I was growing up, as well as watching The Tomorrow People I devoured books and comics – of the latter I remember Tiger and Scorcher and its pure football off-shoot, Roy of the Rovers. There were great stories, say about “Billy’s Boots”, that carelessly seemed to get lost at the start of every week, only to be salvaged just in time for young Billy to return to form and score the winning goal. Of course there was also the nonfiction Shoot!, including its classic weekly, “You are the ref” quiz.

Now, with the World Cup upon us, it’s a great time to use football to get kids (and we should remember girls are into football almost as much as boys nowadays) into reading. I hope that the Johnny Mackintosh stories will be one way of doing this, but of course there are other books out there that have football-related themes, so I thought I’d survey them here in case other titles catch your eye.

As a rule, the football-only titles are for younger readers (probably ages around 7-9). As the readership rises, the books still have football, but are about other things as well.

Big Football – Rob Childs’ series (Big Win/Big Fix/Big Freeze/Big Match/Big Prize/etc) follows Danebridge School Captain Chris Weston’s footballing adventures.

Death Penalty – a murder mystery set in a Championship football club, by Dennis Hamley and Charles Fenoughty.

Exposure – I had the pleasure of hearing Mal Peet talk about this at the Cheltenham Literature Festival one year. Otello, a glamorous South American footballer (together with WAG wife Desmerelda) becomes embroiled in a scandal with Shakespearian parallels.

Football Academy – a series for younger readers than the Johnny Mackintosh books, Tom Palmer’s stories follow the fortunes the boys trying to get into Premier League “United’s” academy.

Jamie Johnson – a series by Dan Freedman that sees Jamie graduate from the school team to become a professional footballer.

Girls FC – you can follow the Lornton Ladies Under 11 team in Helena Pielchaty’s series, offering a female perspective on the beautiful game (training in a tiara anyone?)

Hot Prospect - young Roddy Jones tries out for a football academy known as Stadium School in an adventure by Cindy Jefferies and Seb Goffe.

Johnny Mackintosh and the Spirit of London – when Johnny’s abducted by aliens on the day of the County Cup Final, you might think he misses it, especially with all the adventures that follow afterwards. But, if you travel through time, anything’s possible, and he still gets to line up for Castle Dudbury Comprehensive against the posh boys of Colchester Grammar in the big match, with its thrilling conclusion.

Johnny Mackintosh: Star Blaze – he always thought he was one of the school team’s best players, but Johnny’s been dropped from the school team and is shunned by his teammates. Why it’s happened is a mystery, especially when Johnny’s the set-piece specialist. Watching from the sidelines, it looks as though Castle Dudbury are going out of the cup, but when injuries strike, Johnny has twenty minutes to try to save the day – that’s if his teammates will even pass him the ball.

Keeper – a football story with a South American and supernatural theme, by author Mal Peet (who’s also written Tamar and The Penalty). Thanks to Rhodesy the Bear for the recommendation.

Soccer Squad – this nearly didn’t make the cut, simply for using the “S” word. It’s “football” guys! Bali Rai’s stories are about a local youth club’s football team.

The Penalty – another Mal Peet story that doubles as a South American supernatural  thriller.

TJ -  did spending too much time penning his own football stories mean that Theo Walcott devoted too little to his training and was left behind? I hope not. Aimed at a younger readership than my Johnny Mackintosh stories, TJ and the Hat-Trick and TJ and the Penalty both published in April 2010, with the title character bearing an uncanny resemblance to the young Gunner.

If you have other football-related fiction for children or young adults, please leave a comment and I’ll update the master list.

Posted in Football, Johnny Mackintosh, World Cup
Tags: Bali Rai, Billy's Boots, Charles Fenoughty, Dan Freeman, Dennis Hamley, District 9, Harry Potter, Mal Peet, Quidditch, Rob Childs, Roy of the Rovers, Shoot!, The Tomorrow People, Theo Walcott, Tiger and Scorcher, TJ, Tom Palmer, vuvuzelas, you are the ref

Sven Goran Eriksson was largely a very good manager for England. Then he snapped. Was it the constant media sniping, or just being too long in the job? I don’t know. Whatever the reason, when it came to World Cup 2006 in Germany, he decided to take one fit striker (Peter Crouch), one crocked striker (Michael Owen), one speedy schoolboy (Theo Walcott) who hadn’t even played a minute of Premier League football and a brilliant attacking midfielder (the then Wayne Rooney), but a player recovering from injury.

Schoolboy Theo Walcott

Readers of the Johnny Mackintosh books will know I’m a football fan, and I went to Germany for the bitterly disappointing tournament. It was the maddest of possible selections – Michael Owen dragged his injured body off the pitch in the group stages, never to return and we were bereft. Back in those days, when Rooney collected the ball in midfield and ran at the opposition, he was as frighteningly good as Messi, but he hadn’t played as a striker before and, however talented he is, didn’t know the role. When it came to the crunch, not even Sven believed in his Walcott gamble. When the team needed a spark of inspiration, young Theo remained an embarrassed spectator on the bench.

This time around, England sailed through qualification; Capello said all the right things about not taking injured players, only selecting players in form and not picking people who weren’t playing for his clubs. The horror of the vuvuzelas hadn’t then begun, so we can’t blame them for Fabio’s madness, but at the eleventh hour he too went barking mad and performed a volte face on his stated position.

Heskey flaunting the flag of St George?

Inexplicably, into the squad came Jamie Carragher, a man who retired from international football years ago and has had a simply terribly season for mid-table Liverpool. Into the squad came Ledley King, a man permanently injured. We also have Emile Ivanhoe Heskey, who may have the coolest middle name of any England player, but can’t get in the Aston Villa team (as well as not being able to score a goal). Finally, from nowhere we have Shaun Wright Phillips, far down the pecking order at Manchester City behind the sadly discarded Adam Johnson.

The best English centreback this serason has been Michael Dawson. He received a belated call up to the squad with Ferdinand’s sad loss, but should have been on the plane ahead of King or Carragher. Even now, he’s uncapped, and time is running out to play him.

Heskey is big and powerful, but can’t score; Crouch is big but lightweight, but scores lots. Sadly (and it’s not their fault), as soon as either goes onto the teamsheet, England play hoofball. The only way to progress in the World Cup is to keep the ball and to move it quickly from man to man, creating openings. Every punt to Heskey or Crouch is a 50:50 ball which, if we lose it, means we spend several minutes and lots of energy winning the ball back, only to punt it forward again. By all means take Crouch because he is different and does score, but only play him as a last resort  if we need a goal in the final half-hour of a game.

Fabio was probably right not to take Walcott, but Wright Phillips offers nothing better. The balance of the squad would have worked better with his Manchester City teammate Adam Johnson, much preferred by their club manager, Roberto Mancini.

I do think Barry will be fine, and will benefit from the rest (he looked jaded all through the second half of last season), so at least I agree with the manager there. However, with all the passengers now in South Africa, we’re down the bare bones of a winning squad.

Psycho - penalty miss

In Italia 90, after a dreadful opening, player power dictated a change of formation and method. Into the side came the incomparable Mark Wright as sweeper, and the team didn’t look back until first Stuart Pearce and then Chris Waddle fluffed their lines (rumour has it Waddle’s penalty went into orbit, he ballooned it so high). The pundits are now saying we have to change our formation for the later stages, but that’s too late if we’re to get used to it and learn to play incisive keepball on the ground. We’ve got to start now and hopefully the players will demand it if Capello himself can’t see it.

How Waddle's penalty went into orbit

Other than the keeper, the team for England versus Algeria picks itself:

GK: James/Hart/Green

RB: Johnson (could be the star of the tournament)

LB: A Cole

CD: Dawson

CD: Terry

CM: Barry

CM: Lampard

RM: Lennon

LM: J Cole

In the hole: Gerrard

CF: Rooney

I hope Signore Capello is reading this, or it could be a very miserable next month.

Posted in Football, World Cup
Tags: Algeria, Chris Waddle, Emile Heskey, England, football, Glen Johnson, Italia90, Ivanhoe, Lionel Messi, Michael Dawson, Michael Owen, Peter Crouch, South Afric, Start Pearce, Sven Goran Eriksson; Fabio Capello, Theo Walcott, Wayne Rooney, World Cup

On Wednesday evening I found myself trudging home late at night through the kind of incessant downpour you feel is never going to end. Rain that infuses every part of you, seeping up your trousers, down your sleeves and occasionally washing over you as a car drives past too quickly. My thoughts turned to a marvelously funny, insightful and poignant novel I read recently called The Flood, by Maggie Gee.

Set in the City, where it’s always raining, flood waters are steadily on the rise. Battered boats rescued from scrapyards serve as makeshift buses for the tower blocks, around which the waters are rumoured to have been diverted from the city centre. In that centre, the wealthy are ferried to the opera in gondolas. While all the inhabitants of the city are struggling not to drown in their various problems, their President Bliss tries to deflect attention to far away, pursuing a Blair-like war against the unfortunate inhabitants of a  poor distant country. Neither his cabinet nor the general population has any enthusiasm for the crusade, but somehow Bliss is able to continue with the war (for the sake of peace, naturally).

As well as the rain, I was thinking of this particular novel because I was travelling home from the launch of Maggie’s latest book,  My Animal Life. I’m not sure the Al Saqi bookshop on Westbourne Grove has ever been so crowded. Three of us were there because we’d all had the privilege of meeting Maggie a year earlier, and sharing a writing month with her at Hawthornden Castle as the finishing touches were put to this memoir (I was beginning Johnny Mackintosh: Battle for Earth). It’s a wonderful thing to see a physical book when you were also able to watch it in the late stages of development in the womb. It’s also great to meet fellow writers and on the night I chatted with several I’d not met before.

Maggie spent a little time in conversation with Colin Grant, another author as well as BBC World Service Broadcaster, talking particularly about the candour of her new book, and what had led her to write about herself rather than her characters. Maggie’s a very deep thinker. She puts a lot of science in her books, she’s often tackled difficult themes (check out The White Family), and she comes across as very honest and full of love. While Colin asked her about “sex”, she ended their conversation saying the greatest taboo in writing is “love”. As the place was bursting at the seams, concerned for her audience, it wasn’t long before she stood to read to us from My Animal Life.

I had a very religious upbringing and, although I know now that we’re from all the same stuff as the other creatures on the planet, I still often think of people as separate from animals. That’s strange because my philosophy is very anti the rationalist/logical school that’s dominated so much of our thinking since the Greeks. Intellectually, I believe we’re social creatures, rarely motivated by logic precisely because of our animal nature (if you force me to argue rationally). There’s nothing dirty or disappointing about calling ourselves “animals” – it’s what we are and we should embrace that. Maggie certainly does that, but it doesn’t stop her wondering about some of the great mysteries of life. Some questions she opens the new book with, saying she wants to explore, are:

“Can I save my belief in the the soul from my love of science?

Why do we need art? Why are we driven to make it?

How do we forgive ourselves? And our parents?”

I know the book’s going to be wise, funny, honest and interesting. I’m sure there’ll be something in it for writers everywhere. But I know I’m lucky to have met Maggie and I’ve benefited from spending time with he, so I’d urge everyone to do the same by reading her new memoir.

Posted in Authors, Book signings, Publishing Industry
Tags: author signings, author talks, book launch, Maggie Gee, memoir, My Animal Life, Saqi Books, Telegram Books

I just realized today is the very last day to send your name into space (with an accompanying message if you like) aboard a genuine solar sailing ship. IKAROS (the Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun – OK the acronym’s a little contrived) will be launched by JAXA, the Japanese Space Agency, later in the year, together with the Venus Climate Orbiter.

Readers of Johnny Mackintosh: Star Blaze will know that brother and sister pairing, Erin and Zeta, fly a solar sailing ship called the Falling Star. Within our solar system, the Sun’s solar wind wouldn’t be strong enough on it’s own to propel a ship, so we’ll need lasers to force it along. However, within Erin and Zeta’s home system of Alnitak there’s an unusually strong solar wind, which is probably why they developed such a vessel.

I’ve sent a message into space, as have Johnny and Clara. They’ll be launched on a DVD carried by the spacecraft – why don’t you join us?

Posted in Clara Mackintosh, Johnny Mackintosh, Science
Tags: Alnitak, Erin, Falling Star, IKAROS, JAXA, solar sail, Venus Climate Orbiter, zeta

They say the eyes are the windows of the soul. I went to the opticians today and came back with these pictures of mine:

The yellow dots in the middle are my optic nerves. You can see the dominant colour is green (a little like Johnny Mackintosh), but I have darker, brown areas while Johnny has silver flecks. I love the detail, that these look like the landscapes of strange alien worlds. The strange black lines on the right eye, like death spikes of an Andromedan Star Destroyer, are my overlong eyelashes.

Posted in Johnny Mackintosh, Portraits
Tags: eye, optic nerve, retina, retinal scan, self-portraits, soul, windows

On Tuesday I gave my Starstuff & Supergiants talk at Science Oxford, as part of the Oxfordshire Science Festival. In a way it was a bit of the science behind the Johnny Mackintosh stories. I spoke about how the speed of light is a universal speed limit and time travel is (perhaps) a one-way street, and how the large hadron collider is a time machine (as well as everything else). I explained how stars are the atom factories of the universe and talked about the way stars die, sometimes in a supernova (what readers will realize the alien races of the galaxy call Star Blaze). Thanks to everyone at Science Oxford for giving me the opportunity, and to all those who came out on a Tuesday night to listen. If anyone missed it, there is no escape. The whole thing is available as a webcast from the Science Oxford site.

The talk was very much a tribute to Carl Sagan and I was pleased to give Chandra a namecheck as well. I enjoyed it – hope you all do too.

Posted in Book signings, Public appearances, Science, space, Star Blaze, Sun
Tags: Carl Sagan, Chandrasekhar, large hadron collider, Oxford Science Festival, science oxford, stars, supernova, time machines, time travel