ROY KEANE? THE BOY CAN WRITE!

Roddy Doyle is surely the only Bookerwinning writer to co-author a football autobiography. In 2014, he worked with ex-Manchester United and Ireland captain Roy Keane on The Second Half. Despite Keane’s bruising reputation, the experience was a happy one. ‘People in Ireland have opinions about Roy the same way they have opinions about the Civil War,’ says Doyle. ‘I didn’t encounter any abrasiveness. He’s a great man to work with. Terrific integrity and a brilliant editor. He always had suggestions about changing words. It was very precise, line-by-line stuff. And he’s very funny. My father was in hospital at the time, he was dying. I’d go in and tell him things that Roy had said. My father was sitting up in bed with the other patients, just in stitches laughing. That’s a lovely memory.’