Autobiography

engineer, simply had the most wonderful name
ever) and Mrs Green.
Bless her, she is long gone, but I would have
loved to have introduced her to Isambard
Kingdom Brunel and have her sitting next to
me for dinner. How wonderful it would have
been to show her that after all these years I
had done what she didn’t think possible; I had
made something of my life.
In June 2003, Birmingham City Football Club
were invited to a tournament in Kuala Lumpur
to play against the Malaysian national side,
Newcastle United and Chelsea. While in
Malaysia Lesley and I were invited to lunch by
the Prince, along with Ken Bates and his
fiancée (now wife) Suzanne. We were given a
brief lesson on the protocols to be observed
and the waiters were on their knees when they
served the Prince his food. He was a charming
man, and we exchanged the usual banalities,
asking him if he played polo, to which he
replied that he did - with Prince Charles and
other members of royalty and aristocracy from
around the globe.
He then began to tell us a story about himself
and Prince Charles, before they were both
married, when Ken turned to the Prince midstory
and asked him, ‘Are we going to chat all
day or are we going to eat?’ We were stunned.
Lesley and I looked at each in disbelief. Ken
was treating the future King of Malaysia in the
same way he treated the top people in football,
with a degree of indifference and
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