I was born in 1957 at 45 Spellow Lane in Walton, Liverpool, England. To my knowledge, this gives me the distinction of being the Everton player born closest to Everton Football Club’s ground, a mere 100m ‘stone’s throw’ from Goodison Park.

I was the youngest of seven children (Keith, Derek, Lena, Ian, Ken, John and myself) of two wonderful parents, James and Ethel. Life was pretty tough for Mum and Dad in those days – Dad having to work away a lot to make ends meet whilst Mum looked after seven kids, one of whom, Ken, had contracted polio in 1954, aged four. Dad was hoping Ken would be the Everton footballer in the family but the polio put an end to that dream. Happily, Ken went on to become a world renowned expert and global speaker on creativity and education, for which he received a knighthood in 2003. His own web site can be found here.

In 1959, when I was 2 years old, my Dad had a serious accident at work sustaining a broken neck which left him paralysed from the neck down. On the day of his accident, Dad was given only 24 hours to live – but amazingly he survived with immewnse bravery and fortitude for another 18 years! From the day of his accident, Dad was both bed and wheelchair bound and required 24/7 care. Dad would be in pain most days and, sadly, his body finally gave in and he died aged 62 in 1977.

The fact that he lived so long was a testimony to his unbelievable strength of character and will to live. He was a great man and, considering his disability and pain, he had a great sense of humour. Mum was also a wonderful Mum, who carried the main burden of his care needs whilst still looking after the children. I couldn’t have wished for two greater people to be my parents. Mum sadly died aged 86 in 2005.

In 1962, when I was 5 years old, we moved to Widnes in Cheshire (formerly the county of Lancashire). Despite Dad’s miserly industrial accident compensation, there was enough money to enable us to move from the small terraced house in Walton to a bungalow with nearly 2 acres of land!  Growing up here was heaven for the ‘scouse family Robinson’, particularly for my brother John and I as we now had our own small football pitch to play football on – and to argue against each other for hours on end!

In November 1971, we moved back to Liverpool (to live in the Childwall area of the city) and I attended Holt High School. However, with childhood dreams of one day being a professional footballer and not feeling motivated by subjects such as Algebra, French, and Geography etc, I left school altogether in December 1972 at age 15, without any qualifications or prospects of a job.

John and I dreamed of playing for Everton, but our Dad suggested we write to all of the local clubs to ask for a trial – Everton, Liverpool, Tranmere, and Chester. Liverpool were the first to reply, offering us both a one-day trial. After the trial, Liverpool didn’t invite John back but I was asked to train weekly at Liverpool’s Melwood training ground and then I was given an extended run in their ‘A’ Team, which played on a Saturday.

However, we were both really disappointed that Everton hadn’t been in touch. Our cousin, Ken Parkinson, heard about this and decided to contact a friend of his, Bill McNaughton, who worked in the catering department at Everton.  Bill spoke to the coaching staff at Everton and we eventually got a call to offer us both a trial. Apparently, our letter had been filed away!  At the time, Everton ran a ‘C’ team in the local Sunday league, managed by the legendary Everton centre-half T.E. Jones. John and I were offered an extended run in the team. We also trained during the week at Everton’s Bellefield training ground.

Being older and out of work, John was offered training with the first team and the reserves before being released about six months later. As for me, after a few months of training and playing with both Everton and Liverpool, I was faced with the dilemma of choosing one of the clubs to sign for. Liverpool were very keen on me and offered me a contract first, but as Everton were my boyhood team (and still are!), I gambled on trying to secure a contract with them, so I turned down Liverpool.

As I was still unemployed after leaving school in December 1972, in the February of 1973, my brother Ian asked if I could train with the youth players at Everton every day, and I was fortunately allowed to do so by the coach, Eric Harrison and the Youth Development Officer, Ray Minshull . After impressing the staff at Everton, I signed apprentice professional forms in April 1973, on my 16th birthday. The following year, my childhood dream was realised and I signed as a full-time professional footballer for Everton Football Club on my 17th birthday. Appartently I was the manager Harry Catterick’s last signing.

In 1970, at age 13, I became vegetarian after watching a TV documentary about an Amazonian tribe who sacrificed a cow by slitting its throat. After the poor animal had fallen to the floor, the tribesmen jumped up and down on its throat to drain all the blood from its body and then proceeded to chop up the animal to cook on an open fire. I was shocked by this sudden and stark realisation that meat was actually the flesh of a once living animal. I thought to myself that this just wasn’t right for humans to do this to another species, and I decided that night that I no longer wanted eat meat or fish ever again. Ten years later, in 1980, I decided to become vegan.

This meant that I was vegetarian for the first 7 years of my professional playing career and vegan thereafter for the last ten years of my football career. My fitness was never ever in question at any football club I played for. In fact, I would say that I was always one of the top 3 fittest players at all my clubs.

My wife Pauline has been vegetarian for all our married life since 1978, and all three of our children, Neil David (b. 18th November 1979), Alison (b. 7th November 1981) and Kathryn (b. 29th May 1984), were brought up as vegetarians from birth. Neil David decided that the ‘meat-eating’ life was for him when he was about 14 years old. Alison and Kathryn have been vegan for over 12 years now. Kathryn has three children – Ollie (b. 9th February 2012), Beatrix (b. 4th September 2015), and Arthur (b. 10th June 2018). All 3 children have been brought up as vegans from birth!