When David passed away aged 70 on October 8th 2008, he left a legacy to me which is quite amazing. Soon after his passing I was sorting through dad’s belongings and found a really old England shirt and some photos of people I vaguely recognised. Looking more closely, I identified the pictures were of Gerry Hitchens, the former Shropshire miner and Aston Villa football icon (1957 – 1961). The shirt must have belonged to him and I thought to myself, “What on earth are they doing here?” Several days later, I tried to track down the family of Gerry, knowing he had passed away many years ago. And to cut a long story short I managed to locate Gerry’s widow, Meriel and subsequently his eldest son Marcus. We chatted about my dad and his connection with the Hitchens family and of course about his dad, Gerry. Then came the purely out-of-the-blue question to Marcus, “Can I write a book about your dad?” His reply was, “Have you written a book before?” He must have thought I had been drinking but if I’m honest it was a sincere question.
The rest, as they say, is history.
From that day on, Marcus, Meriel and I worked on a biography of Gerry Hitchens. I quickly realised that his story was something quite amazing; a miner born to play football at the highest level. Gerry was a Villa fan and he pushed himself hard enough to fulfil his dreams of not only playing for Aston Villa, but for England and one of the greatest club sides in the world, Inter Milan. Through pure persistence and a bit of luck, we managed to ask no other than Gerry’s England colleagues Jimmy Greaves to write a Foreword and for Sir Bobby Charlton and Jimmy Armfield to write about Gerry, along with some of Gerry’s Villa team mates like Peter McParland. Not only that, the Italian football icon and current Italy international manager Gigi Riva wrote a touching piece and so did some of Gerry’s other team mates like Mario Corso, Giancarlo Cella and the legendary Luis Suarez (not the Liverpool striker). The book sold 2500 copies. Not bad for a rookie author? Incidentally, the football magazine rated it 4 out of 5 stars in a review of the book (December 2010).
Furthermore, during the compilation of the book, Marcus introduced me to piece of old 8mm cine film he had copied onto video in the 1990s. It showed Gerry in Chile during the 1962 World Cup along with behind the scenes footage (in colour) of a young Bobby Moore, Bobby Charlton, Jimmy Greaves and the entire England party (trying to) enjoy themselves before, during and after matches. It was at that point I asked Marcus if I could try to find a way for the film to be used commercially.
Sadly, one week before the book launch the lovely Meriel passed away and her funeral was held on October 8th 2009 (which by some amazing coincidence would have been Gerry’s 75th birthday). The book launch took place in Birmingham and local BBC and ITV news channels dedicated a few minutes each to the book launch and to the life of Gerry. The next day, several national newspapers dedicated upto one full page each to some still photos I had passed to a news agency and suddenly the name of Gerry Hitchens was on everyone’s lips once more – see link -http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
A few months later I managed to talk to IMG Media in London (they produce tv programmes for Sky like Futbol Mundial) who were keen to find interested parties to use the footage. In the coming months leading upto the 2010 World Cup, both Marcus and myself were interviewed on Sky Sports FIFA Futbol Mundial and a BBC tv production and the rare piece of footage got a couple of airings.
It was all rather surreal for Marcus and I both being in the local and national media. During this period I got to meet some of Gerry’s team mates at Villa and also managed to meet the legendary Jimmy Greaves himself, and presented him with a book (see attached photo).
Now I had the writing bug. I was approached to pen the story of Bobby Thomson , Gerry’s team mate at Villa and ‘The Real Bobby Dazzler’ was published in October 2010, with Mike Summerbee providing a superb Foreword.
My latest book, ‘Memories Made in Aston’ is being launched on.....October 8th 2011 at Villa Village. The book is a compilation of fans, celebrities and ex-players memories of anything to do with Aston Villa, some history, facts and figures and even some Villa related poems. Ian Taylor has written a Foreword and other Villa greats have contributed – the likes of Gordon Cowans, Gary Shaw, Ken McNaught, Chris Nicholl, Peter McParland, Jimmy Brown and Pat Heard to name but a few. Of course Marcus Hitchens has a slot in the book and so has Nigel Kennedy.
Suffice to say, I aim to continue writing and no doubt my dad will continue to follow my progress, along with other ‘Holte-enders in the sky’ from ‘up above.’
Simon Goodyear
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