Don Gillan

Don Gillan was raised in the township of Pudsey, West Yorkshire, whose biggest claim to fame is being the inspiration for 'Pudsey' the Children in Need mascot (whose designer came from the town) and which was in turn the inspiration for the name of the dog who won BGT. In fact in medieval times the place was so awful, surrounded by fetid marshes, that according to local legend "t'ducks flew back'ards" to keep the mud out of their eyes and avoid seeing it, whilst the denizens of nearby Leeds used to direct unwary travellers there as a practical joke! It's much better now of course. Now it has a ridiculously oversized bus 'station', a railway station a mile and a half out of town not served by any buses, enough wine bars to defeat Rumpole of the Bailey on a bar crawl, and nowhere to buy shoes! Oh! It's also the birth town of Jack P. Shepherd, Corrie's David Platt (wonder where he buys his shoes).

Don is recently early retired from a lifetime (employment wise) in computing (feels like many more - lifetimes that is).

He wrote his first book in 1985, that being "Of Boars and Bantams - A Pictorial History of Bradford City F.C." and runs the www.stagebeauty.net Edwardian Theatre website - online since 2003. More recently has been spending much of his time adding new titles to his 'Season Scrapbook' and 'F.A. Cup Scrapbook' series of vintage football histories.

PS: The pic shows the suspect photo-bombing a Canadian-indian girl at her tribal graduation ceremony.