I wrote about #BruceSpringsteen, turning down a ticket 50 years ago this month, and a notion, a notion deep inside... I know everyone else has written about Bruce but there's something else I felt I needed to say too. iridley.substack.com/p/my-cancers...

I wrote about #BruceSpringsteen, turning down a ticket 50 years ago this month, and a notion, a notion deep inside... I know everyone else has written about Bruce but there's something else I felt I needed to say too. iridley.substack.com/p/my-cancers...

A bitter sweet symphony blending (almost) seamlessly Richard Hawley, AI, sore nipples and lumpy moobs... iridley.substack.com/p/my-cancers...

After long reflection, decided to share the start of a novel that Vikki wrote and I discovered in a drawer after her death. I think it's intriguing and rather beautiful. iridley.substack.com/p/meetings-i...

My son has just texted me lamenting #Spurs 4-0 defeat at #BayernMunich. Wonders if we should support Los Angeles FC now that Sonny's signed for them. I replied that it would certainly be cheaper to go there.

I think of my Vikki, one of the founder members of @womeninfootball.co.uk, many times a day. Today, many more times. And I recall one of her favourite quotes, by Eleanor Roosevelt: "A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong she is until you put her in hot water." #Lionesses

Memories of #Ozzy that spring to mind... 1. Buying Paranoid as a 15-year-old.... Wasn't a metal fan. Just thought it a great tune. 2. Someone suggesting to him in The Osbournes that he have a bubble machine onstage. "Bubbles? I can't have bubbles. I'm the Prince of 'F*****g Darkness." RIP.

Just seen #TheBalladofWallisIsland at my favourite cinema, The Odyssey, St Albans. Funny, touching, charming, uplifting. Tim Key and Tom Basden seriously talented lads. Carey Mulligan sprinkles stardust. How a 'little' film can take on big stuff. (Fondness for puns a necessity.)

My company, Floodlit Dreams, is publishing this revealing football fan memoir by British TV legend Jimmy Mulville in October. Includes how he helped Bill Kenwright buy Everton. Available to order on Amazon, Waterstones or signed copies on our website. www.floodlitdreams.com/product/ther...

The world feels a lot better when I write something. Well my world, anyway. Hope yours is today. And hope features in this. Maybe have a read in the shade... iridley.substack.com/p/my-cancers...

First they came for Nigel Farage and I said “it’s that bloke over there pointing at the sea”.

I wrote a little story for my grandchildren, Amelia and Harry. I then asked my great friend @mikemcmonagle.com to illustrate it. So good were his drawings, I decided to publish it. For the toddler in your life. And there's plenty of us. #WheresGrandadsHat www.amazon.co.uk/dp/173963963...

I'm such a saddo that I've just spent £2.99 and my Sunday afternoon on Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy. Didn't think I'd like it after 1st 10 mins but did. It's actually about grief. Truly, Madly, Deeply meets Love, Actually. I'm a soppy saddo.

I genuinely think Common People might be the best pop song ever... You can dance, you can sing along and it has social observation. And the great line: "And so you'll dance and drink and screw, because there's nothing else to do." #Pulp #Glastonbury

Long, hard day at the Royal Marsden with some big decisions needing to be made. But a nurse from the chemo unit cheered me up when he said he hadn't realised before that I was the guy who wrote Tony Adams' book, added his Dad had read it and got into recovery and shook my hand. #Grateful #Blessed

I see the greatest of all footballing journeymen Jefferson Louis has retired at the age of 46 (though I reckon he might yet be persuaded back by someone during next season). Here's an interview I did with him for the #NonLeaguePaper a few years ago. thenonleaguefootballpaper.com/features/242...

Terrible start to the week. #Wordle just decided to end my streak even though I know I completed it yesterday. Ah well, can only get better.

Come on #Blades, do it for our Vikki (again). ⚔️ #Championship #PlayOffFinal #SUFC #SheffieldUnited #SHUSUN #YouFillUpMySenses

First Sir Chris Hoy, now Joe Biden... I'm keeping fine company these day. Something wot I rote... iridley.substack.com/p/my-cancers...

Ever poured fruit juice on your cereal? Ah, #Mondaymornings. On a brighter note, much smitten by The Cure's latest album.

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Bradford City fire disaster. For the 25th, I visited Valley Parade and wrote this for the Mail on Sunday. Includes an interview with one of the most remarkable men I ever met, the burns surgeon Prof David Sharpe. www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba...

Just catching up with Monday's @itvcorrie.bsky.social. Beautiful opening with the dying Julie recording some observations about life and love, and the camera cutting away to characters going about their daily business. What a wonderful writer is Chris Fewtrell. #CoronationStreet

Much of the modern #PremierLeague illustrated in one cameo in this #ManCity v #Wolves game: Doku, wide on the left, stops his run and passes backwards. Pep applauds. Meanwhile, the effects mic picks up a fan shouting: "What are you doing?" #MCIWOL

A joy and a privilege to meet Khalida Popal at the British Sports Book Awards last night as she won the Vikki Orvice award for Women's Sport Writing then went on to win the overall prize for her remarkable My Beautiful Sisters. Vikki would have been hugely proud. #CTSBA25

Treatment day at the Royal Marsden then, all being well, on to @sportsbookawards.bsky.social at The Oval to support @shekharbhatia whose lovely book #NamasteGeezer is up for Football Book of the Year. Big day. Whatever happens, it will be a good one.

Not written anything for months bar the odd Substack. Was planning to take the year off for other things while I can. Writing had other ideas, however. Today the first chapter of a book came to me and I wrote 1,500 words. Funny game, this. Hope I get to finish it. #AmWriting

Had a feeling Solanke's goal might have been a David Narey v Brazil 1982 moment. #LIVTOT

Going to be an intense footballing weekend, plenty televised. A polite request to commentators and pundits: please stop with the "this football club" and "this football match" when "this club" and "this match" will suffice. We can see that it's football you're talking about.

18 years today since Jacqui Oatley was the first female commentator on Match of the Day. Oatley on her memories of that “isolating” time, and how it led to the founding of Women in Football and a lifelong mission to help more women enter the industry www.nytimes.com/athletic/629...

For some reason, my short novel, #DarkCloudsBringWaters, is a ridiculous £2.02 on Amazon. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may. www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Clouds-...

For some reason, my short novel, #DarkCloudsBringWaters, is a ridiculous £2.02 on Amazon. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may. www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Clouds-...

Unsolicited writing advice no. 13: No artist needs artificial intelligence if they have the real thing.

It will make no difference to my life whether #RoryMcIlroy wins or not. So why do I agonise over his every shot, throw arms aloft and shout "yes" when he makes a tricky par-saving or birdie putt? Please just do it tonight and take your place in the pantheon Rory. #TheMasters2025 #TheGolf

A few people asking me about the #FootballShorts series of books I've been curating... Been taking time off but a new one on the way - about #Everton (and much more as FS books are), by Jimmy Mulville, lifelong fan and legend in TV land. Out early autumn. Early material lovely. Going to be terrific.

My crime thriller #DontTalk is a ridiculous £2.30 for the paperback on Amazon currently. That's less than a bad cup of coffee. And this is good. Rev. Richard Coles called it "deft and compelling." #CrimeWriting #Thriller www.amazon.co.uk/DONT-TALK-Ja...

Some random Monday thoughts: 1. Dawned on me the best way to get something done is to put it on a list. Then it is subject to the sheer satisfaction of crossing it off. 2. M&S Softer Butter: it ain't. 3. Trump, eh? Would that Derek and Clive were still alive and live. #HesAKant

Thanks to @jonathancoe.bsky.social and @valmcdermid.bsky.social for a fascinating hour talking books, crime writing, state of the nation and more at the Oxford Lit Fest this evening. Sorry if I went a bit fanboy as you both signed my books. Do love #TheProofOfMyInnocence.

"I love it when she ignores our ‘no’s’ and runs off in her socks on wet grass..." I wrote something about my grandkids and how they've helped to fill the void of loss. iridley.substack.com/p/notes-from...

"I love it when she ignores our ‘no’s’ and runs off in her socks on wet grass..." I wrote something about my grandkids and how they've helped to fill the void of loss. iridley.substack.com/p/notes-from...

On #Pointless, Straight Hit has just been verified as a fielding position in #cricket. I've played the game and followed it for many years but never heard that. Have I just not been paying attention?

Finally caught up with #Conclave at the beautiful Odyssey cinema in St Albans. Pacy, tense, sumptuous cinematography, and of course Ralph Fiennes gives a towering performance. But why does every film I'm seeing at the moment seem to be really about Trump?

Reading a novel by an eminent British writer who refers to Wolverhampton Wanderers reaching the UEFA Cup final in 1973. (It was '72.) I know pedantry can be an enemy in writing fiction but detail also matters and it's an easy check. (Really good novel, by the way.) #AmReading

Not always enjoyed #NewcastleUnited's 'game management' in recent seasons but delighted tonight for all the Northumberland Ridleys and the legions of Mags' fans who've waited all these years for a trophy. They deserve it. #LIVNEW #CarabaoCupFinal

Different game, but when it comes to #DanBurn, I'm reminded of a quote by an old college basketball coach: "Quick guys get tired, big guys don't shrink." #LIVNEW #CarabaoCupFinal

Very sad. Brilliant John Feinstein's A Season on the Brink, 1986 account of a year embedded with Indiana Uni and Bob Knight, the Brian Clough of college basketball, made me want to write sports books. My first, A Season in the Cold in 1992, was almost homage to him. RIP. espn.co.uk/espn/story/_...

Back in the old home town. #SunnySunnyWeymouth

1-1. Desperate teams. Desperate game. Nuff said.

I guess I just have to be at this one, St Albans City v Weymouth, having been chairman of both clubs. Both fighting relegation (not my fault - long time since my tenures!) so expecting quite a duel in the sun. #NonLeague

Micah Richards is reminding me these days of a PG Wodehouse line: "He looked as if he had been poured into his shirt and forgotten to say when." #MNUFUL #FACup #MOTD

Wrote this book about 20 years ago. Recently, an American screenwriter named @anthonytoohey.bsky.social contacted me to say he'd like to turn it into a script and maybe get a movie of it made. Now he's written a lovely piece about sport, movies and #FloodlitDreams. anthonywrites.com/2025/02/20/s...