Town fan and TWTD reader Robert Linsdell has published his first novel, Close of Play.

Rob has been a regular home and away since 1987, usually sitting in the lower tier of the Sir Bobby Robson Stand. He told TWTD about his book.

“Close of Play is my first novel. It's taken me four-and-a-half years to write, in-between working full-time and looking after a young family,” he said.

“I've been writing ever since I was a teenager but this is my first completed novel. After some polite rejections from literary agents, I decided to go through with self-publishing it as an e-book on Kindle.

“Feedback has been pretty good so far, but most of my readers have been friends and family so they may just be being polite!”

Close of Play is set at the start of the 20th Century and focuses on a young man called Harry and his best friend Walter. A gentle, loyal and book-loving young man, Harry is bewildered by his enigmatic mother, left cold by his pious, hard-working father and in awe of the best friend that he feels unable to live up to or live without.

With his friends around him, Harry finds happiness in the simple things in life — sunshine, cricket and friendship — all of which are undermined when Walter meets Hattie and discovers there is more to life than boyhood games.

Just as it seems that Harry, Walter and the boys are destined for separate paths, so WWI breaks out and propels them all into a very different world. Harry and Walter's relationship is tested to the limit and on the battlefields of The Somme, something has to give.

You can find out more about Close of Play on Facebook here and buy it here.

Photo: Action Images

karls_dad added 10:41 - Apr 2 Not read this but intend to A, because of the town link and B, because WW1 is the forgotten war to this generation i feel, having the toured the battlefieds and the beautifully kept graves in France and Belgium, and returned very humbled by the sheer enormity of it all, its a subject very close to my heart, i would recomend to anyone who has not visited to spend a few days over there, learn a little and pay some respects to these very young men who gave their lives freely for us.

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Linners added 10:49 - Apr 2 Thanks karls_dad. Despite all the research for the book I've not hard a chance to make that visit but I will one day. The sheer size of it all must be mind-blowing.
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PYBlue added 10:54 - Apr 2 Anything to support a fellow Blue and will give it a read. Good luck
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Linners added 10:56 - Apr 2 Thanks PY. I hope you enjoy it.
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KTBlue added 15:28 - Apr 2 Hi, best of luck with this, I am n exactly the same position, and hope to get mine done in the coming months. Congratulations getting this far, I know how much work it involves
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irishtim added 17:05 - Apr 2 Is it available to purchase in ireland or online? Would like to support a fellow town fan.
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karls_dad added 19:08 - Apr 2 Linners, Good luck with your book, i mean that, as for going over the channel, well its must do for evry man woman and child, the sheer enormity of it all, i just cannot descibe it in words! A must visit is the Anglo/French memorial at Thieaval, forgive the spelling, its massive, and just for those that were never found, that in itself was enough to make me go and sit and think, thousand supon thousands of names of young men that have no grave, so very moving, Albert, pronounced albear is another, fabulous museum, there and of course the countless cemetiers, they are everywhere!. Its a definate one for your and everybodies bucket list! can,t desciribe the over bearing aura that is there!

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Ebantiass added 20:45 - Apr 2 Best of luck with your adventure and wishing great future success.
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Linners added 21:38 - Apr 2 Thanks everyone, much appreciated. It's been 4.5 years in the making but I'm really happy to finally get it out there. Hopefully some people will like it and tell their friends. Good luck with yours KT, I look forward to hearing about it. Self-publishing may not be the purists route but without it I would never have got to this point. It should be on Amazon.com Tim, if that helps. Just search for Close of Play and it should appear. Don't accidentally buy Ricky Ponting's crappy autobiography by mistake! I think the Menai Gate is the memorial with all the names on. Astonishing that so many could simply disappear into the mud. Happy reading to any that choose to buy the book. If you want to ask any questions about it by all means post them here or PM me. Cheers.

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karls_dad added 14:08 - Apr 3 Linnners, its Thieaval, the Anglo French Memorial, in France, near Albert, just google it and it will bring it up, huge Memorial, with walls rising full of names, have a look, they also have a museum at the site which is well worth a visit, the absolute scale of the horror when you visit these places is mindblowing. To put modern war into perspective its awful when we see on the news that we have lost four young lads in Helman distict due to an IED, but when you realise that on the first morning of the Somme battle there were nigh on sixty thousand dead or wounded in four hours! just mindblowing, i lost my grandfather there, he was a Farrier with the RAVC, a unit into which i followed his footsteps as a young man. I sincerely recommend everybody to either visit or research what happened in the Great War, the stupidity of it all, the wanton waste of life, the commanding officers who had not a clue and sent young men into a hail of gunfire whilst miles away from the battle front, I have to say this to those that do not know............ the ceasefire ie, the end of the war was set for eleven o clock in the morning, of the eleventh day, on that morning knowing full well that in a few hours the war will be over! and we could all come home, Officers were stiill sending men over the top to their death, because its was their last chance as an officer to make a name for themselves!! and that is 100% true now that must make you think.................

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Linners added 18:44 - Apr 3 Yup. The Armstice was signed first thing that morning but they didn't come into affect until 11am. Imagine losing a loved one in that most futile of futile periods. Bonkers.
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Linners added 18:49 - Apr 3 Sorry, that should have said Menin Gate, not Menai! Menin Gate is the equivalent at Ypres...
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