Journalist Craig McGill is burning the candle at both ends.

But instead of pubbing and clubbing after each day’s work at the Aberdeen Press and Journal, he’s working hard to become a published author.

You can expect to see his study of the attention-seeking disorder Munchausen by proxy published before the end of the year.

The condition is where a parent, or carer, causes injury to their victim so that they can be hailed a hero when they become the ‘rescuer’, satisfying their hunger for attention.

One of the most famous recent examples was that of Beverly Allitt, a nurse at Grantham and Kesteven Hospital, Lincolnshire, where four children died and nine were injured. She is currently serving 13 life sentences.

His other book couldn’t be much further removed in subject matter – he’s tackling the phenomenon of football.

Craig said: “Munchausen’s is something everyone remembers through the Beverley Allitt case but it’s also one of those things that gets the odd appearance as a ‘psycho’ disease in television programmes like Casualty.”

The book contains interviews with people accused of suffering Munchausen by proxy, examining how they were accused and how it has affected them.

“If it is women with children and they have had them taken away I’ll look at how that happened and if they’ve got them back again.

“It will also be looking at the illness through history and bringing that up to date by looking at how the law, which is geared to protect children, actually doesn’t help them very much.”

There is also a debate as to whether it is actually a condition or more a media idea.

Craig said: “It will be written in a features style and I won’t be taking sides. Being a journalist I’m in a position to be able to show both sides and let the readers make up their own mind.

“Like any good journalist I like to get into investigations like this and it’s a good feeling when you get that break or stroke of luck that brings it all together.”

The football book, as yet untitled, will look to the future. Craig feels that most books on the sport concentrate on the past or recent debates.

“I’m writing it from the point of view of the average fan, people who have followed football for 10 or 20 years. The game is getting out of their control.

“In life if things don’t go your way or you don’t like something you can usually just go away or do something new. But it’s not like that with football – you have to stick with your team.

“The book will examine if you can throw money at something for ever and ever.

“It will also look at when the bubble will burst because anything that’s trendy now will not stay trendy for ever.”

Craig, 27, has been a journalist for five years and has worked on several papers, including The Scotsman, The Sun, Evening Times and the Aberdeen Press and Journal, where he is currently a district reporter at the heart of the swathe covering the Glasgow-Edinburgh-Stirling-Perth area.

Both books are expected to be published by Vision Paperback before the end of the year.

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