Former Manchester United, West Ham United, Norwich City, MK Dons and Cambridge United midfielder Luke Chadwick ‘proud’ of new book
Luke Chadwick has tried to make his autobiography a mixture of serious and humorous – and he hopes that comes across to the readers.
The former Cambridge United midfielder was at Waterstones in Cambridge city centre on Saturday signing copies of Not Just A Pretty Face: The Luke Chadwick Story.
The 44-year-old tackles the subject of his mental health while at Manchester United, when he was mocked for his appearance.
But he was also keen for other sections to be more light hearted.
Cambridge-born Chadwick said: “There’s a number of messages within the book.
“I speak in great detail about my time at Manchester United where I was struggling with my mental health because of people talking about the way that I looked. How I dealt with it is not the right way to deal with it.
“I hope it’s a way of people understanding – and don’t get me wrong, I know just because I’m saying it doesn’t make any difference to a lot of people – but because I wasn’t able to express myself or show vulnerability in that period, I was stuck with them problems for a lot longer period of time than I would have done if I was able to speak about them. So there’s a number of hopefully positive messages.
“I also hope it portrays the gratitude that I’ve got for football and the clubs that I played for.
“Also, I try and keep it light hearted because I don't take myself too seriously. Hopefully there’s some humorous stories in there that might make someone laugh.
“And it is just really an honest, open account of my career in football. I didn’t want it to be just a list of games that I played in, I wanted it to be a little bit deeper.
“Obviously the credit for that goes more to Matthew (Mann), my co-writer, who’s done a fantastic job with it. But it’s just a really open, honest account of my journey through life to date.”
Chadwick is also proud of the final product.
He added: “I’d never thought about writing a book. It was Matt that got in touch and the thought of it, probably a bit egotistical, really, was just to have something physical to look back on my journey.
“It’s something for my great-grandchildren to look back on when I’m long gone.
“I was a bit concerned with who is going to want to publish it and stuff like that.
“You always sort of have them types of thoughts, but it’s something that’s come along and I'm really proud of it. It was quite therapeutic, obviously reflecting, thinking about things. It wasn’t a case of getting really emotional or stuff like that, but sort of going back to thoughts, feelings, success, challenges, that sort of thing. It was a really healthy process.”
