Let’s Play Rugby was co-written by Paul Howard and Gordon D’Arcy. In our blog today, Paul shares how co-authoring worked for them.
Co-authoring children’s books with Gordon D’Arcy has been one of the happiest twists that my career as a writer has taken. Gordon and I actually knew each other in a previous life, long before we collaborated on Gordon’s Game, our first book together.
Twenty years ago, I was a sports journalist with the now defunct Sunday Tribune newspaper, while Gordon was well on his way to becoming one of the greatest rugby players of his generation, a two-time Six Nations and three-time European Cup winner, as well as a Lion. The first time I met him, I was standing on the other side of a barrier in the mixed zone area of Dublin’s Aviva Stadium, asking him questions with my Dictaphone pointed in his direction. It’s funny the turns that a writing life can take.
A few years ago, my mobile phone rang and Gordon’s name popped up on the screen. I occasionally namechecked him in a gently mocking way in a humorous series of books I wrote for grown-ups called the Ross O’Carroll-Kelly series. When I saw his name, I thought I had perhaps overstepped the mark and he was calling because he was annoyed with me. Being a moral and physical coward, I let the call go the voicemail.
When I listened to his message, it wasn’t about that at all. He wanted to write a book about his career, he explained, and wondered if I was interested in collaborating with him. My next thought was, ‘How am I going to get out of this?’ So many players of Gordon’s generation had already told their stories and I thought the last thing the world needed was yet another Irish rugby biography.
But when I called him back, it turned out that he wanted to do something completely different. He wanted to tell the story of his rugby career through a series of children’s books.
I thought, ‘Wow! What an amazing idea!’
So we sat down together and we plotted out the first in what would become a trilogy of Gordon’s Game books. What I enjoyed most about working with Gordon was that he was absolutely brimming with ideas. Obviously, he knew what it was like to play professional rugby at the very highest level. But he also knew how to make his story relatable to young readers.
The Gordon’s Game series centred on a ten-year-old boy – Gordon – who is selected to play rugby for Ireland. It’s a slight twist on Gordon’s real life story. He was still at school when he was first called up to play for his country, although he was actually 17 and not ten years old as he was in the series.
Gordon approached each book with pages and pages of ideas, providing great insights into what it’s like to be a professional rugby player. We spent months working on the manuscript. And in response to each draft, he supplied me with pages and pages of notes, suggesting ways to make the story more dramatic and the action more exciting. He really was the dream co-author.
Our latest book – Let’s Play Rugby! – is for a younger audience. Gordon’s idea was to produce an interactive book that placed young readers in the boots of a rugby player. Brilliantly illustrated by Ashwin Chacko, with every turn of the page, you can perform each and every one of the key actions of a rugby match, including scrummaging, jumping in the line-out, scoring a try and kicking a conversion – not to mention lifting the trophy at the end.
Gordon, of course, did it all in real life. Let’s Play Rugby! will let kids know how it feels to star in a big rugby match. And if you’re a big kid like me, you might even enjoy doing the actions too.
Paul Howard
Book credit:
Let’s Play Rugby written by Gordon D’Arcy and Paul Howard, illustrated by Ashwin Chacko ( Little Island) available now.
Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the federation.
