That’s right, Perry has written an autobiography!

If you don’t do anything else today, make sure buy your copy. Using our usual skills, we’ve dodged copyright laws and have included a sneak peak of the book. Hopefully this taster will insipre you to make that purchase! The following excerpt is from one of the early chapters outlining Perry’s youth.

Sneak Peak from Perry’s Autobiography:

My youth was a mixed bag, with the ups and downs of any young lad growing up in East Anglia. Often misunderstood at school, bullied by my peers, yet respected for my footballing abilities, my one constant ally was Pedro, a Mexican immigrant. During this time I kept a journal of my events at school.

5th March, 1979 Just got back home from playing patty-cake with my friend Pedro. Although he hasn’t fully got to grips with football yet, I’m glad to see that he now fully understands the complicated rules of patty-cake. Irma’s being a frigging pain in the butt as usual. Gosh!

6th March, 1979 Practiced throw-ins at school today. Bet one kid that I could throw the football over them mountains, something my uncle Martin “Rico” Matthews taught me. Still can’t get in the first team at school – Coach has something against ginger kids. Milk deliveries went well this afternoon. There’s a new girl at school called Debs. She’s pretty good looking.

8th March, 1979 Sorry didn’t get to write yesterday. Helped Pedro build a cake for this hot chick he’s after. Decided to take up a new martial art called Kenny-Kwon-Do, invented by Kenny Dalglish. Thought it might benefit my footballing skills. Gotta go – got to feed Tina.

9th March, 1979 What a day! I guess I’ll have to start at the beginning. The whole team has gone down with food-poisoning! Coach said he had no choice but to play me (and Irma). So, I finally got to play for Framley High School 1st team! We were playing Lamfrey High School, who are top of the league, and beat them 1-0! Irma scored the only goal, and I played really well – that throw-in practice really paid off! Debs smiled at me after the match – girls have never looked at me that way before.

Perry, age 14

So that was the moment that really launched my career: from then on the only way was up! Within two years, Arsenal had signed me up, I’d cut my hair, and was playing football that was, well, dynamite.

Perry, age 14