ONE of Scotland’s top football writers, television and radio pundits, Bill Leckie has written a book about the final whistle being blown on St Mirren’s Love Street ground.
The book – called Endless Love – is now available in the shops and is predicted to become a best-seller as Saints prepare to move to a new stadium, in January.
Bill Leckie has made his name as a football writer and has never hidden his love for St MIrren and their Love Street home.
Born and brought up in Paisley, he stood on the terraces as a youngster and even started his journalistic career as an eight-year-old writing his first match report for a newspaper from the Press benches of the main stand.
Bill had been invited to cover a game alongside his primary school headmaster who covered matches for the now-defunct Paisley Pictorial.
Those first few lines of commentary from Love Street has taken Bill to some of the most famous grounds in the world covering the biggest games in football.
As Bill says of the impending move out of Love Street: “First it’s the house you were born in. Then it’s your primary school.
“Then eventually they decide you’re not getting to keep ANY of your childhood – so down comes Love Street.
“No more North Bank, no more Caledonia End, no more Cairter’s Corner, no bump in the east goalmouth where my Uncle Danny’s ashes are scattered.
“But when the option was no more St Mirren… well, the words ‘lesser’ and ‘evils’ spring to mind.
“This is the story of what that ground meant to those who called it their second home.
“My dad stood there, his dad stood there. All the grown-ups who stood there with me became my uncles. It was there that we watched a man called Fergie become a legend. It was there that we saw leagues won and cup runs forged and relegation confirmed.
“We’re not the only ones. If you grew up with Airdrieonians, St Johnstone, Clydebank, East Fife, Dumbarton and more, you’ll have shed a tear when the JCBs ploughed through the very bit of terrace where you shivered, roared and moaned.
“But if the price of survival is bulldozing our heritage, you have to wonder if the future will be left envying the past.”
Endless Love publisher Norman Macdonald, of Macdonald Media Publishing, said: “Bill Leckie is one of Scotland’s most entertaining writers and he’s never short of an opinion or 12.
“His views on football are like that screamer of a shot that ripples the twine at the back of the net. When Bill gets going, he doesn’t miss and hit the bar.
“This is a book that’s not only a must-read for St Mirren fans, but is a great read for true football fans – no matter which team they support.”
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Contact: Norman Macdonald
Phone: 01505 816980 or 07958 648814
Email: info@macdonald-media.co.uk
