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Ex-editor pens ‘bawdy’ football manager spoof

Big DicksThe touchline notes of a fictional football manager provide the basis for a former regional editor’s latest book.

Frank Rawlins’ spoof, Big Dick’s Litle Black Book, follows the fortunes of a new Premier League manager attempting to survive relegation.

Frank, who edited several weekly papers during his regional press career, wrote the short book contemporaneously as the 2014-15 season approached its nail-biting climax.

He also wrote style guide Simple Matter Of Style, which has been been recommended by Tony Johnston, head of Press Association Training, and Richard Parsons, the recently-retired NCTJ and News Associates stalwart.

Said Frank of the book: “It’s pretty bawdy, but then it’s about professional football, so what do you expect.”

Frank began his career on the Stamford Mercury in the 1960s after leaving school, before working for EMAP in Peterborough as a senior reporter and sub-editor.

He then went on to the Evening Post, in Hemel Hempstead, where he became chief sub, before taking on his first editorship at the Sheffield Chronicle.

Frank later edired the Journal series in Oxford, followed by the Courier group, which is now the Oxfordshire Guardian.