My Story: From Foster Care to Footballer

by Mark Bright, Kevin Brennan

With a foreword by Gary Lineker

Mark Bright's 1990s partnership with Ian Wright at Crystal Palace earned them legendary status with the club. Bright played top-level football for most of his career, after starting in non-league while working as an apprentice engineer. He appeared in FA and League Cup finals, played abroad and experienced the change which swept through the game with the introduction of the Premier League.

But this book is not just about Bright's time in the game. This is the story of someone who battled against the odds to achieve his dream. It is the story of a boy coping with the bewildering and frightening circumstances of being taken into care with his brother when both were very young. It is the story of his fractured family with a father who arrived in England from the Gambia, met a girl from Stoke-on-Trent, and then very quickly disappeared from his children's lives.

It is the story of a mother who was unable to take responsibility for the boys she had given birth to, and it is the story of how a young Mark and his brother Philip found comfort and security after being fostered by a caring, loving white family whilst having to endure racism throughout their childhood. Above all, it is the story of a boy who had an unshakeable belief in his own ability to succeed in one of the most ruthless and high-profile professions in the world of sport.

My Story explores Mark's life both on and off the football pitch, containing material he has never spoken of or addressed in the past. It delves into the highs and lows he experienced as a player and as a human being. He writes candidly about the racism he encountered, about the game itself, about those who work in it, about the way in which football has changed, the money it now generates, and about the characters he met along the way.

Genres: Biography, Football

291 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 7, 2019

Reviews

[Blake · Rating 2 out of 5]

As I’ve written before, many football autobiographies can be categorised as by-the-number rehashes of a player’s career, or cash grabs to capitalise on a player’s contemporaneous popularity. There are few that transcend these categories, and those that do tend to be the choicest cuts that leave you savouring for more. Don’t be fooled—Mark Bright’s My Story is not one of these outliers. Although it does have its moments, it does unfortunately embody the quality of the first category class of autobiography, wherein the echo of banter and stories of yesteryear is keenly smothered by the ghostwriter’s hollow embrace.

In My Story, Mark Bright—with Kevin Brennan—takes us through his life growing up in foster homes, his experiences with racism in the 1970s West Midlands, his glut of goals across seven clubs, and his burgeoning media career. Throughout the narrative, the flavour of changing UK footballing and societal landscapes across the 1980s and 1990s can be sampled. Bright’s experiences with family, and what family means to him, colour his experiences and keeps him humble—and we, in turn, can be empathetic and, at times, inspired.

Family estrangement, finding family, starting a family, teammates as brothers, and mentoring young players—each variation on the family theme runs as an undercurrent to his footballing journey. Although this theme is one of the strengths of My Story in facilitating his footballing journey, it may put off the readers who aren’t able to slog through the first third of the book as we follow Bright from foster home to foster home.

And this gets to my main criticism of My Story—the style. The words are so hemmed and hedged by the even and perfunctory tone of writing that it all seems so detached. Voice and personality are blunted. These criticisms mark the careful footfalls of the ghostwriter. Hence my use of the word slog. There is no searing insight that you can recognise as coming from a strong opinion or a voice of change. In conveying his story through the sideman, Mark Bright—the scorer of over 160 professional league goals across three divisions and a bona fide Crystal Palace and Sheffield Wednesday legend—becomes the strike partner rather than the main man. He becomes the stage and lights for others. He becomes the dull blade in his own stories. He even becomes the butt of jokes in an awkwardly comedic and seemingly hastily-penned foreword by Gary Lineker.

In looking for points of difference and telling what has yet to be told, writers tend to narrow what we look for in football autobiographies. We look for the anecdotes and pub stories. And there are seams of anecdotal gold and silver in My Story. The words neon up whenever Ian Wright is mentioned—such is the testament to his ability to light up any room and in My Story to provide spice to some sparse writing. Bright’s brief jaunt at FC Sion meeting Ronaldinho’s older brother is a great yarn. Yet the best of all is the story of centre back-turned-the most in-form striker in the league, Paul ‘Albert Tatlock’ Warhurst, and his insistence on displacing one of Bright or David Hirst as striker on the eve of the 1993 FA Cup Final. Lessons of humility and perspective from Roy McFarland and Kevin Lisbie bookend Bright’s career. Punters may take or leave everything else, considering that the sentiments within are tempered by the economy of emotion.

This review isn’t intended to be a swipe at ghostwriters. In a genre where ghostwritten works are close to the norm, there are many well-written ones that lend a layer of emotional heft, flourish, and substance to someone’s story. We attribute such quality in writing to the strength of what has been told, and perhaps it is cruel that the ghostwriter gets the tiny by-line below the name we are all familiar with. But when the style of writing leaves the subject and their experiences a certain shade of bland, it all just comes across as disconnected and weightless.

I cannot remember exactly when My Story came into my possession, but it may have been part of an early-pandemic bulk buy from Book Depository before Amazon closed it down. The book had sat on my shelf, unassuming and unread, for a few years. Yet from this unclear provenance comes clear recommendation: Unless you are heavily invested in Crystal Palace’s Coppell years or Wednesday’s Francis years, you can leave this unassuming book similarly unread and untouched near the bottom of your pile until a later date.

HIGHLIGHTED PASSAGE

“I don’t think I’m overstating things by saying that the move to Crystal Palace changed the direction of my life forever. I might not have been aware of it at the time, but I can now see that’s exactly what happened. It changed me in so many positive ways. It broadened my education, I mixed with more black people than I had ever done before, London was so much more multicultural than anything I had ever experienced, and I immediately loved it and felt very much at home. There was always a lot going on and, perhaps most important of all, I grew in confidence as a player and a person.” Bright on his move to London (pg. 140)

STARS: 2/5

UNDER 20: An uneven slog that blandly colours the narrative and gives no justice to the experiences contained within.

FULL-TIME SCORE: The star player doesn’t come off the bench; without him, his teammates on the pitch look forlorn and stilted in possession as the team goes down 0-2.

RELATED READING: A Life in Football by Ian Wright (2016); Crystal Palace FC: The Coppell Campaigns 1984-1992 by Nigel Sands (1992); One in a Million: Trevor Francis by Trevor Francis (2019)

[Georgina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being a Palace fan, I've always heard stories from older Palace fans about Mark Bright and Ian Wright, and I've heard how amazing they were. I've grown used to seeing Mark Bright sat next to Steve Parish at games and I've enjoyed listening to him commentate on Under 23's games, in short I've known him as Mark Bright - the Palace Legend but the fact is he played for Palace before I was born so I've never really known what he was like as a player. This book has given me an insight into Mark Bright - the player and the person. I really enjoyed reading this and he genuinely seems like a wonderful person. I enjoyed some of the stories about his time at Palace as well as his time at other clubs. I loved hearing about his family, particularly Gran Davies. This is a must read!

[Stephen Varcoe]

First ghost written autobiography I’ve read in ages. You get little sense of MB’s personality reading this because he hasn’t written it, all you get are a string of facts, events & opinions as described by someone else. Having said that nobody should expect Dickens when reading a footballers’ autobiography.
I’d prefer to have a drink with Andy Gray.

[E Ewia · Rating 4 out of 5]

In his book former footballer and pundit, Mark Bright reveals the early chapters of his life in which he pieces his parents interracial relationship and being in and out of care due to the breakdown of their relationship. His aim to be a professional footballer and the stabilising force of his long term foster carers had on his life. A story of a man who has maintained an amicable personality despite the circumstances around his life and his challenges in his career in football.

[Mark Fitz-Gerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

An emotional, heartfelt book. Remember him as a player but the open and honest way he describes his childhood is exceptional. Well worth a read.