Pat Nevin with Val McDermid: Scottish Football’s Indie Star

At the height of a luminous playing career, Pat Nevin spent evenings at theatre and ballet performances, and wrote a column in the Chelsea club newspaper, championing his favourite indie bands. He even had the joy of helping John Peel with the admin for his legendary late-night Radio 1 show. This sense that there is more to life than sport is what makes his book, The Accidental Footballer, so different from the average football memoir. Brought up as part of a socialist, Catholic family in Glasgow’s Easterhouse, Nevin developed a loathing for sectarianism which undoubtedly galvanised his efforts to stamp out racism in football. And after ending his playing career at Kilmarnock and Motherwell, Nevin has earned his place as one of the smartest and most perceptive football pundits in the business. In this event, filmed live at the 2021 Edinburgh International Book Festival, Nevin talks to Val McDermid, covering Hibs, nights out at the Hacienda and the Happy Mondays.