JUST PUBLISHED

"My Search for Celtic's John" - by Tom Greig

Celtic Football Club has had many legends over the years - from Jock Stein and Jimmy Johnstone to Henrik Larsson and Martin O'Neill. When he died tragically following events on the football field at the age of twenty-two, John Thomson was the first-choice goalkeeper of Glasgow Celtic and Scotland, and already acknowledged as a sportsman of legendary status. More than thirty thousand attended his funeral in his native Fife and, over seventy years on, his grave remains a shrine of pilgrimage for Celtic fans the world over.

Making full use of oral history techniques, eye witness accounts, archival and medical records and sifts of contemporary newspapers, this book is a study of John's personal life, his schooldays and meteoric rise from juvenile football to international stardom. It traces the surviving family of John's sweetheart to learn what became of her after John's death.

There is the account of the accident itself, its sorrowful aftermath, and the heartrending effect it had on Rangers' Sam English. Along the way, the author challenges some astonishing misinformation surrounding the player and reveals some fascinating coincidences too. It includes some never-before-published photographs and a guided tour of John's birthplace.

A percentage of all profits from the sale of this book will be donated to a Motor Neurone Disease charity.