Ever since I was a boy I’ve had dreams of writing a book. Even when I was a paperboy up the Shankill in 1975, I daydreamed that one day a book would be published with my name on the front. To be perfectly honest, the dream was that the book would be an explosive science-fiction classic, with silver robots on the front cover, that would be made into a Hollywood blockbuster movie to rival Star Wars! I never imagined back then that one day my dream would come true, or that the book would simply be about being a paperboy up the Shankill in 1975.
So, as you can imagine, I am enormously grateful to everyone who helped to make that wee boy’s dream come true.
I will always be thankful for a happy childhood, for a loving family and good friends.
I especially want to express appreciation to my wife and soul mate, Lesley, for listening patiently to every word of every draft. I also want to thank my daughters, Beth and Hope, for demonstrating great tolerance while their dad was going on and on about what they call ‘the olden days’.
I want to acknowledge Susan Feldstein’s experience and remarkable skill, which she applied with great support and positivity, throughout the editing phase. I thoroughly enjoyed the process and learned a great deal about good writing.
Finally, I want to thank Chenile Keogh and Robert Doran from Y Books for believing in Paperboy, for all their hard work and warm encouragement and for working their magic to make my dream come true.