London based publisher Headline has bought the rights to a new book by Alderley Edge resident and former German international footballer Dietmar Hamman.
'Didi' will work with local author Malcolm McClean to produce Love Letter to a Liver Bird which is the infeasible story of a German who falls for the old enemy.
Didi, a self-confessed Anglophile, is mad about cricket, speaks with a Scouse accent and even dreams in English. He has found himself falling deeply under the spell of a country he never expected to adopt.
Along the way he won almost every footballing honour, including playing a pivotal part in winning the Champions League in one of the greatest come-backs of all time and playing in a World Cup Final.
Malcolm McClean told me "I'm always interested in people with unusual stories.
Here was a German who loved England for a start; a guy who can drink you under the table one moment and win the European Cup the next; someone who is both the eccentric mad professor type and the highly focused professional with a burning desire to win.
"Everything about Didi is paradoxical and that interested me. I called him a paradox and he told me he's been called much worse - and so we began to unfold his story."
Love Letter to a Liver Bird will be available in February 2012.
Malcolm's McClean previous books include 'Thinking Outside the Box My Journey in Search of the Beautiful Game' about goalkeeper and local resident Brad Friedel, and 'To The Edge' which looks at the entrepreneurial spirit which is concentrated in Alderley Edge and the amazing stories of some self–made local people.
Click here for further information about these books and the work of Mr Bearhunt, Malcolm McClean.
