SUCCESS INSPIRES NOVELIST STEWARD
MICHAEL Steward used to bind together the Bury Town side which accumulated 100 points on their way to winning the Zamaretto League One in 2010 – now he is putting the binding on his very own action thriller.
The midfielder-cumjournalist, who also turned out for Needham Market and Hadleigh United, has just self-published his first crime novel, titled Harvest – a story of two detectives searching for a missing British girl in Beijing.
The tale was based on an extended honeymoon to China after ending his playing career and Steward, a crime reporter for the East Anglian Daily Times, said: “I probably wrote the first 5,000 words when I came back from the trip, but I left it alone for a long while.
“Life got in the way but I went back to probably seriously in 2017 it’s taken me this long. But we got there.
“When I was in China the idea was formed, I just loved the whole Chinese culture and everything.
“The Bury boys are quite pleased for me, the reaction quite positive when I told them about it and a lot of people are saying they’re going to buy it.”
Steward came through at Cambridge United before playing college football in America and then returning to play for Bury Town.
He particularly looks back fondly on Bury’s most memorable season when they amassed 102 points and scored 115 goals and describes it as a a special time in his career.
“It was the highlight of my career without a shadow of a doubt,” he added.
“We had a really good team, with some really good players, but we also had a really good team spirit.
“We did everything together really, we played together we were our nights out together and had such a strong bond. I think that that was what in the end kind of took us over the line.
“I obviously played for other clubs as well. I never had that sort of bond with with a group of teammates.
“I guess if people could bottle it up, we would be selling it to every team in the country but sometimes it just comes together as a group.
“We were due to have a 10-year anniversary of winning the league in 2020 but unfortunately Covid curtailed that. But we still speak to each other and we’re still pretty close.”