Ian Ridley
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Ian Ridley | |
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| Education | Hardye’s School, Dorchester Bedford College, University of London (French) |
| Alma mater | University of London |
| Occupation | Journalist, writer, publisher |
| Years active | c. 1970s–present |
| Known for | Sports journalism, author of sports books and novels |
Notable work | 14 sports books and 3 novels |
| Awards | Sports Journalist of the Year (British Press Awards, 2007) |
Ian Ridley is a journalist, writer and publisher who is the author of 14 sports books and three novels.[1] [2] [3] [4] He grew up in Weymouth, Dorset, and attended Hardye’s School, Dorchester, before reading French at Bedford College, University of London (1973-1976).[5]
Journalism
His 45-year sports journalism career began as a sub-editor at the weekly Worksop Guardian before he moved to the daily Evening Post-Echo, which covered Watford and Luton. He then spent 10 years on The Guardian[6], rising to Deputy Sports Editor, before spells as a feature writer on The Daily Telegraph, The Independent on Sunday as Football Correspondent, The Observer as a football columnist, and The Mail on Sunday as Chief Football Writer, in which capacity he was named Sports Journalist of the Year in the British Press Awards of 2007.[7][8][9]
Books
His sports books include the Sunday Times No.1 best selling Addicted, with the former Arsenal and England captain Tony Adams, which was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award[10]. The follow-up book, Sober, marked Adams’s 20 years of recovery from alcoholism. Another of Ridley’s books, The Breath of Sadness: On love, grief and cricket - which is an account of coping with the death from breast cancer in 2019 of his trailblazing sports journalist wife Vikki Orvice - was also shortlisted for the William Hill and called in by the judges of the PEN Ackerley Prize.[11][12] In addition, four of his titles have been shortlisted in the British Sports Book Awards.
Television
Ridley has also written for television, including more than 20 episodes of the Sky One drama series Dream Team (TV series), and scripts for Channel 4 documentaries on Tony Adams and Paul Gascoigne.[13]
Publishing
After setting up his own sports book company Floodlit Dreams in 2013, in recent years Ridley has established a fiction publishing house, V Books, named after his late wife.[14] He turned his hand to writing crime novels and completed a Masters in Crime and Thriller Writing at University of Cambridge. The result has been Outer Circle and Don't Talk, books 1 and 2 in the series of Jan Mason investigative journalist stories. He has also written a literary novel, Dark Clouds Bring Waters.[15]
Football
Ridley was also involved in Non-League football for many years, becoming chairman of his home-town club Weymouth F.C. in 2003-24, an episode which inspired his book Floodlit Dreams, and again in 2009, when he had to resign due to treatment for prostate cancer.[16][17] He also had spells as chairman of St Albans City F.C., where he lives, and vice-chair of Salisbury F.C..[18]
References
- ↑ https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Ian-Ridley/author/B00K3WUZLY?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
- ↑ https://harpercollins.co.uk/collections/books-by-ian-ridley-4882
- ↑ https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/author/ian-ridley/
- ↑ https://www.thepressawards.com/ian-ridley
- ↑ https://www.floodlitdreams.com/about/
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/profile/ianridley
- ↑ "Ian Ridley". TheRegionalPressAwards. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
- ↑ "All posts tagged "ian ridley"". footballwriters.co.uk. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
- ↑ "Ian Ridley". The Press Awards. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
- ↑ self, janine (2017-06-24). "Ridley's 20-year journey with Tony Adams". Sports Journalists' Association. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
- ↑ Bull, Andy (2020-10-14). "Ian Ridley's memoir of coping with grief is a reminder of cricket's soothing qualities". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
- ↑ "Skirting the boundary". TLS. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
- ↑ "Ian Ridley | Additional Crew". IMDb. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
- ↑ "V Books". V Books. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
- ↑ https://dtdiehard.net/writers/ian%20ridley.htm
- ↑ "The FWA Interview: Ian Ridley – Football Writers' Association". 2012-04-03. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
- ↑ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Floodlit-Dreams-Save-Football-Club/dp/1416511458
- ↑ Ridley, Ian (2024-12-08). "My cancer's worse than yours (12)". Ian’s Substack. Retrieved 2025-09-10.
External links
This article "Ian Ridley" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical. Articles taken from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be accessed on Wikipedia's Draft Namespace.