Local historian Bernard Lewis is in the process of writing a book on Neath’s legendary 1988/89 season.  He is hoping to get it published next year.

Here, Bernard asks for help in persuading publishers to release the book.  He needs fans who would buy the book to visit his website and leave a comment.  The more comments from fans intending to buy the book, the more likely it is that it will get published.

“Can I risk boring you with an update on the above?

Back in 2012 I was well into writing what I hope will become a book on Neath’s record-breaking 1988/89 season (the one BEFORE the All Blacks visit!) I pended that because I was commissioned to write ‘Swansea in the Great War’ and that was published in October 2014 (factual books do take time to get into print!) More on the Great War Swansea book here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Swansea-Great-Y … 1783032944

So, I’ve now dusted off my work on Neath rugby and hope to finish it in early 2015 and then try and find a publisher. I’ve actually completed the writing up to the eve of the 1989 cup final so most of it is there but it needs the final couple of chapters plus a lot of checking and polishing. If I can get a publisher on board I would hope (can’t guarantee) that the book would be out for Christmas 2015…

If all else fails my fall-back would be Kindle publishing…

More on me here: https://bernardlewisauthor.wordpress.com/

It might help me persuade a publisher that the book is a ‘runner’ if fans of Neath, old and new, got in touch with me via my website to register their interest.

At present I need to finish the writing and then polish it all up. I think it’ll be about 70,000 words with images provided by Mrs Giddings, widow of Jim, who took the photographs for the programmes etc.

It’ll be a very brief, potted history of the club (Mike Price is the main man on that, of course) just to lead the reader in and then some 1988/89 pre-season stuff and then an account of every game during the season – detailed descriptions reworded by me from the press of the day to give a detailed flavour of how each game unfolded with scorers, teams etc. I’ve had contributions from Paul Thorburn, Adrian and Graham Davies, Gareth Llewellyn, Allan Benjamin, Dai Shaw and Alan Roper etc. Just to get some flavour…

It also covers the work of the committee(from the minutes) and other non-match stuff. How Neath’s internationals fared at the national level in 1988/89. And a rounding up…

Ideally at this stage I simply need people to try and spread the word to others and for those other people to contact me via my author blog to just express an interest in the book. No obligation to buy, of course. The more names I can get by January 2015 the more likely I am to be able to attract a publisher.

Heard today that ‘Swansea in the Great War’ has sold 640 copies in the first month; so its not JK Rowling figures but a local history publisher will want to at least think that it can shift 400+ copies to have a chance of making the sums add up. So the more advance interest for ‘Neath! Neath! Neath! Neath Rugby club’s Record Breaking 1988/89 Season’ the better…

Bernard Lewis