THIS IS
IAN DYER
Just a man with a heart, and a heart with a pen.
A TROUBLED PATH TO WRITING AND POETRY
Ian Dyer is a fifty-eight year old father of four and grandfather of ten.
Born and bred on a council estate in Stoke-on-Trent, he’s been a football fanatic ever since he was old enough to kick a ball and was a member of the infamous Naughty Forty hooligan firm after becoming involved in football violence from an early age. After years on the hooligan scene Ian gradually moved away, leaving behind broken relationships and many lock ups. His life became a nightmare of drink, drugs and depression but in the end poetry became an escape, it was a different world – a world where thoughts and feelings could truly be expressed.
After appearing on the cover of Mark Chester’s book “Naughty” and making a small contribution to its content, a new career in media beckoned. TV and film credits include “The Real Football Factories” with Danny Dyer (where one of his songs featured in the soundtrack), a French documentary by award winning director Christophe Weber, numerous spots on Sky TV plus a cameo as a hooligan in the movie “Cass”.
In 2019 Ian was asked by the BBC to write a poem about the late Gordon Banks O.B.E. which concluded the Banksy Special on the day of the great mans funeral.
Ian has also been able to help several charities and copies of his poems have helped raise over £2000 for the Stanley Matthews foundation, and poetry evenings have also helped raise money for The Special Adventure playground in Newcastle-under-Lyme, The British Heart Foundation and various other good causes.
This in turn has led to other opportunities and he’s worked with young offenders and other vulnerable young adults, using his experiences to outline the dangers of gang culture, drink and chemical abuse. “If one young person was put off going down that route through my story then I can honestly say that I gave something back into society, that I took from football”
Unfortunately, depression and PTSD are illnesses that never go away but writing is a wonderful distraction. Ian says today, “So I’ll keep picking up the pen and lamenting my life in verse. So soon the coffin, carried by the hearse”.
