We All Live in a Perry Groves World ― My Story

Fans still chant his name, and there are websites devoted to one of the funniest men ever to hit the big time. Perry Groves spent over a decade in the footballing spotlight. Sometimes he was at the top, often he was at the bottom and that's half the reason the fans loved him so much--and still do. This is the most truthful and hilarious book about professional football you will ever read. Perry Groves was the first signing by the legendary Arsenal manager George Graham, and that unmistakeable figure with his Tin-Tin haircut and cheeky grin was a player in one of the Gunners' greatest sides. Now he has decided to tell all about his rollercoaster years of booze binges, girl-chasing and gambling sprees. He's a nonstop fund of of hilarious anecdotes, recounting top-flight games played with a hangover, 125 mph motorway chases with international stars, visits to a brothel with an England World Cup hero and revealing how one drunken escapade ended with a group of internationals beting questioned over an attempted murder charge. This is a unique chance to find out what top-flight footballers really get up to off the field and how they behave when the dressing room door is closed.

Perry Groves was born in Bow, East London, in 1965 and made his first team debut for Colchester at 16. He signed for Arsenal in 1986 and spent six years at Highbury. His career was ended by an injury at Southampton when he was just 28. He lives in East Anglia and works as a sports development manager. He has two teenage sons. John McShane worked as a reporter in Fleet Street covering the Middle East conflict, the troubles in Northern Ireland and civil war in Africa, before becoming associate editor at the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Mirror. He is married with three children and has homes in London and Spain.