User:Jacqusier Le Singe/sandbox

My Only Boro: A Walk Through Red And White, is the debut non-fiction work of Will Nett. First published in December 2011 it is a combination of styles and genres that tells the story of his hometown, Middlesbrough, from its inception in the 1800s to the present day. It combines autobiography, travelog, investigative journalism, satire, and social commentary, to create a largely humorous account of his Teesside upbringing. Published by Sixth Element Publishing, it has received huge local acclaim and remains a highly contentious piece of work due to the author's insistence that all aspects of his subject matter are explored, most notably the town's darker past concerning unsolved crimes and political deviance.

The book was written over a ten-week period between October and December 2010 and cites numerous local news stories from the period, but is mostly concerned with the area's arrival to it's current state; rising unemployment, financial insecurity, and the ever-fluctuating fortunes of the local football team, the latter serving as a thread of sorts that runs throughout the book and holds the more obscure references and occurences together, most of which were largely unknown until the book's publication: the presence of General Custer, American Indians, former Middleweight boxing champion Marcel Cerdan, Satanism, and the mystery of Edwin Youll. The more recognised references include the respective legacies of swimming pioneer Jack Hatfield and middle-eastern trailblazer Gertrude Bell, the rise of the Parmo- a local delicacy that in recent times has taken on almost mythical proportions- the Rolling Stones, and Tin Tin.

The book has been favourably reviewed locally and endorsed by a number of local personalities such as former Middlesbrough striker Bernie Slaven, who provided a quote for the cover of the second edition, and the town's Evening Gazette newspaper.

Will Nett rarely appears in public- he his thought variously to have been a gardener of some repute, and an itinerant traveller, the latter forming the basis of his next book- but the author introduction in My Only Boro book states he was once a travelling Sudoku salesman.