St Mirren Chief Executive Tony Fitzpatrick's latest book 'The Dream' featuring the Adventures of Babakoochi Bear and friends is out now and is available to purchase on the St Mirren E-Store for just £9.99 plus P&P with all profits from the book going to the Five Little Stones social enterprise.
The books have been inspired by Tony's young son, also named Tony, who passed away at the age of six after suffering from Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. stmirren.com sat down with the Saints Hall of Fame inductee about the new book, how he feels now it is finished, his inspirations for it and having Sir Alex Ferguson's endorsement.
Q: Tony, the new Babakoochi book is out now, the second one that you have written, tell us about how you feel now it is done?
A: It's an incredible feeling to be honest because if you knew my background - I'm dyslexic. That's why I say to any young kid or anybody that you can do anything if you put your mind to it. It's just wonderful to see it now. All the hours and months and months of sitting writing, when you see it finished it's just a proud moment - for me personally but also my family. Especially, hopefully, for the legacy of Tony because that inspired me to write the stories.
Q: What kind of sense of pride do you get when you are actually physically holding the finished copy knowing that you've done this and that it's the second one that you've done?
A: It's a surreal feeling when I hold it and I smell it, I love the smell of a new book as well. It's hard to put into words how you feel. I think it's like anybody in life, if they've worked hard and then they see the finished article, maybe a young footballer who has worked so hard to become a professional player and then signs his professional contract. Something you've dreamed about is now in your hands and it's an incredible feeling.
Q: With your background as a footballer and your background in youth development how long has a football book with Babakoochi been in the planning?
A: Jed McCabe of Inspire Sport, I have to give him a great credit. I've written about 30 stories over the years to be honest and I had a meeting with Jed. He was chatting away and then said "Tony, have you never thought about doing a football story?" and it was a lightbulb moment. I had never ever thought of it and I felt silly.
That very night I went home and something came on the telly about how a young boy had been told he was too small to be a footballer. I remembered back to myself being told as a kid that I was too small, I wasn't quick enough, I wasn't strong enough, I wouldn't be a footballer. I thought, like the first book with its message of bereavement and trying to cope with it, lets go on a journey with Babakoochi with him being told all these things by the doubters and how he comes through it with great resilience, great character, leadership etc. to fulfill his dream.
Q: How much do you draw on your own personal experiences throughout the book?
A: I think you do, it's natural because it's in you. When I was writing the story, Babakoochi's school teacher has a go at him and back in my time I wasn't interested in school, I'd be sitting daydreaming and stuff and as a kid I remember the school teacher laughing at me and telling me that I'd never be a football player and that I was hopeless. Babakoochi goes through this. You have to draw on that inner experience and I do go back into my own experiences as a kid and I've used that a lot in the book.
Q: What feelings do you get when you are writing your books in terms of going into your past and reflecting on that?
A: The first book I had written was a great healing for me. It was about bereavement and anti-bullying and that brought up a lot of grief for me because I lost my son. When I was writing that story with Tony in mind I was laughing at times, I was crying at times so I was going through the whole bereavement process when I was writing the book and I felt a great inner peace after it was finished.
This book has taken me into my childhood and they talk about healing the inner child, but that's what it does. I would recommend it to anybody because everybody has a story in them and even if you just sit and write it really does heal you and that's what this has done for me. For every bit of hard work I've put into this I've got double out of it.
Q: Babakoochi is based on your son Tony, was it something you saw or hoped for him that he'd become a footballer?
A: Yeah he loved football. Before he had taken illness at four and a half years old, just before he started school, when he was just two or three years old, when you played the ball to him he could control it, pass it, he loved football. The great thing for me in my life was running out at Love Street - we played Hearts - and Tony was the mascot that day with the St Mirren strip and he kicked the ball about Love Street. He loved St Mirren and he wanted to play for St Mirren so it was a great moment.
Q: Sir Alex Ferguson wrote the foreword for the book, how much did that mean to you because I know how much respect for have for him?
A: Sir Alex changed my life completely and he was like a second father to me. He was at Tony's funeral and we've always kept in touch through the years. He loved the last book and we got talking and when I told him that Babakoochi was going to play under Sir Alex Bearguson he started laughing. I said I was going to get someone in football to do the foreword and he told me that he would do it. I spent the full day with him and he endorsed the book as well.
