An Evening with Michael Doyle and Liam Kelly - and a new book!

[When The Sky Was Blue]

Hi all,

First of all, thanks so much to everyone who has joined me over on ThePhoenix.news. It's just under a month since launch and there's already hundreds of Cov fans who have signed up. That isn't taken for granted - I appreciate that times are hard and spending money on subscriber to a website (not that kind of website) is a big ask, so thank you so much.

In a sign of what's to come from The Phoenix, we have our first live show on Thursday 20 August. You can join us for An Evening With Michael Doyle and Liam Kelly at Coventry Cricket Club on the Binley Road. There's a handful of tickets left here.

Anyone joining us on the night, it will feature an onstage interview with Doyle and Kelly, then a short break followed by audience Q&A. Would love to see you there.

While I'm here, I do also have a new book out. I went from Premier League years in When The Sky Was Blue to post-relegation in Sky Blue Fall and now I've jumped to the glory years with Back At Last. It tells the story of our Premier League return. It was released last month so I probably should have already mentioned it, but you know, I've been too busy trying to keep up with Doug's latest deals. You can find it on Amazon right here. The designer at Pitch Publishing is also a Cov fan and I think he's knocked out it of the park with this beauty of a cover.



I'm going to stop trying to sell things now. Goodbye. I promise the next time I post I won't be trying to get money out of you (promise is not legally binding).

 

[SkyBlueSam01]

Hadn't even realised you had written a second one, Richard!

Really enjoyed the first book and it really helped keep me feeling interested and connected with the club when it mattered most last season while living away from it all the other side of the world so thank you!

 

[When The Sky Was Blue]

Hadn't even realised you had written a second one, Richard!

Really enjoyed the first book and it really helped keep me feeling interested and connected with the club when it mattered most last season while living away from it all the other side of the world so thank you!

Given the work my publisher put in promoting it, I don't think they realised I'd written a second one either!

It was a bit crazy with the timings, to be honest. I sent the second book (Sky Blue Fall - Cov 2001-2008) to the publisher early 2025 and they put it in the schedule to be released May 2026. Obviously in between that time Cov turned into an unstoppable winning machine so they wanted a book on last season as well, which came out in July. In between that, I also self published a book on Euro 96. So, three books and a website launch in three months. No wonder I've got these bags under my eyes!

Thank you so much for the kind words about the first book. I'm really pleased that you enjoyed it and it's amazing to hear that it helped with that connection.

 

[MTK]

We are really looking forward to the Kelly and Doyle show on Thursday. Fantastic new season’s eve it’s going to be. Hope you are able to do some more events along these lines too. Thank you x

 

[When The Sky Was Blue]

We are really looking forward to the Kelly and Doyle show on Thursday. Fantastic new season’s eve it’s going to be. Hope you are able to do some more events along these lines too. Thank you x

Thank you! Yes, we're certainly looking to put more events on. One thing I would love to do is a Question of Sport-style night with two former players as team captains.

 

[When The Sky Was Blue]

Thanks to anyone who came along last night to the event. It was a great night. Highlight was possibly my mum asking Liam Kelly afterwards, 'Who is the prettiest player you've ever played with?' Thanks mum. His answer was Ben Wilson.

 

[MTK]

It was a great night. We really enjoyed it. Thank for organizing

 

[When The Sky Was Blue]

It was a great night. We really enjoyed it. Thank for organizing

An absolute pleasure. Happy to get my hosting debut done and dusted - those guys made it easy! Would love any thoughts about who you'd like next.

 

[rob9872]

Would love to know how to write a book that people actually wanted to read. Brimming with ideas and I've started a couple, decided they're crap then binned the idea off. Not sure if it's patience or the rewriting and re-editing. Think I've got a few articles in me, but not sure I'll ever get round to a full book, despite my hours of ramblings on here. In fact not even sure what I want to write tbh, whether a novel or something like the one on this thread. Probably a clear plan might be the first thing I need to have!!