Be Good, Love Brian: Growing up with Brian Clough

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Working for Simon in his shop, Craig found out that money was being taken by his colleague and friend. Instead of reporting it to Simon, he was persuaded not only to remain silent but take a cut, trying to justify it to himself on the basis that they were being underpaid. You don’t have to be a forest fan to enjoy this mesmerising book of tales and stories that dreams are made of. Usually, words tumbled out of Brian. One-liners, quotes from Sinatra, exchanges with Michael Parkinson or David Frost that could captivate a television audience. Speeches that inspired footballers to win European Cups and dark threats that would chill your blood.

On it went. When Craig was 13, Clough invited the boys to stay with his family for a couple of days in Quarndon, a well-to-do village in Derbyshire. Clough realised the boys came from a struggling family, but he didn’t know the half of it. By the time they met him, they had been in and out of care much of their lives. Craig’s first memory of his biological father is him smashing a mirror over his mother, Gillian’s, head. After his parents split up, he had nothing more to do with him. When Aaron’s father, Jerry, moved in with Gillian, they brought Craig home from care and Jerry became his new dad. The family (Gillian had an older son and daughter from her first marriage) was dysfunctional in the extreme. Both parents were lawless and had served prison sentences. Jerry was artistic, troubled and physically abusive. He threw Gillian out of the bedroom window on one occasion, and broke her fingers on another. Jerry had been racially abused all his life, and ended up selling drugs and thieving to make a living. The boys were also racially abused – Aaron because he was mixed race, Craig because he was his white brother. While Aaron joined the army at 16, Craig moved in on a more permanent basis. He was close to Nigel and would go on to work for the eldest brother Simon. He speaks fondly of Clough's wife Barbara - always Mrs Clough to Craig even now. He would send newspaper cuttings of his success in Poland to the Clough family, perhaps in the hope that they would feel some pride and vindication in their decision. He was not so much proving them wrong but proving them right for giving him that chance.Kevin, who was also employed by Simon, convinced him it was fine to take money, telling him they weren’t sufficiently well paid. The thing is, Craig says, he went short of nothing. “If I ever needed money, Brian would say, ‘Help yourself but don’t take more than 20 quid’, and I wouldn’t.” Don't feel the need to do things because you have to make amends for something decades ago when you were a child. Do it because you want to, because you're a good person, and then realise you are that person. years ago I posted a thread about a book I've written and while I expected it to be published MUCH sooner, due to challenges (too many to go into) it's finally coming out on November 4th. Brilliant Craig. Some mentions from Taylor and other football journos I guess will really put the book out there to the sort of target audience. The good thing and huge appeal of the book is that Mr Clough was such a character, it is a great story that before the Daniel taylor article the other year had never been heard so it is so intriguing. Also Mr Clough is almost universally liked amongst football fans of all clubs (bar liverpool). Even Leeds fans accept him as a character.

If I had not met Brian Clough, my life would have been over before it had even begun," Craig Bromfield tells Sky Sports. Just been reading about it on a Derby forum, the author posted on there while he was crowdfunding the book during Nigel Cloughs reign and was always defending him. He's just been on again to make sure everyone who donated gets their books when it's released.Life with the Cloughs in the Derbyshire village of Quarndon was idyllic with occasional reminders of the fame that once saw Clough called out by Muhammad Ali. "Underneath it all he was normal. He travelled normally, he cooked for us. He treated us like sons." I'm replying to this one to say, no I don'think you are being harsh at all. It was unforgivable, they did handle it with class and perhaps I should have avoided this particular topic.

It's only 8 points to the play-offs. Doesn't matter if we're 20th having lost three times as many games as we've won so far. I fancy us now that Hughton's gone. I don't know if it selfish but that might help me if I am able to contribute to one or two kids having a better life. Or maybe it will come when he can see how the money raised from this book is helping others. Children just like him whose lives were transformed with an act of kindness. But it is clear that forgiveness must come from himself not the Clough family or anyone else. "They have told me on numerous occasions whenever I have met them that I need to forgive myself, let it go and move on. It is not them stopping me moving on, it is me. We made him laugh’: Craig Bromfield (left) and his brother Aaron with Clough at Nottingham Forest’s City Ground. Photograph: SWNS

The reason I wrote the book is 2 fold. One, up until the point I turned into a shit, it was a beautiful story and one I felt should be told to show exactly what an incredible person BC was and what a beautiful family the Clough'a are. I do hope the humour of the book comes across as well. It is dark but it is funny. I don't want the negative side to be the overriding side. I want it to be the beautiful act that they did. Just because I am negative about it, does not mean that the story is." Soon enough, he was sitting in the dugout with Clough as Forest won two more League Cups. “Imagine what it’s like for someone to come from where I came from and suddenly be in the dressing room at Wembley on Cup final day, and to be surrounded by heroes,” Craig says. “I had goosebumps. The players made me feel like I was part of the team. I felt like a little king.” How do you follow life with Brian Clough? I thought I wanted success, money, a great house, and none of it’s filled the hole

You won't believe what you're reading at times, but as the chorus reaches it's crescendo you'll feel every pang of how the author felt. I walk up the drive and tell Brian, who marches out, looking for the man. For the next three days, there are journalists and photographers in the garden. Knowing you were likely to read it, I did think carefully about writing my post. I'm sure you have loads of stories in the book which are fascinating and the ending makes for a great climax for the reader. However, given how it did end, I can't help but feel the family won't want their story told by someone they will feel betrayed them. The media publicity is in the hands of the publisher. I've had lots of offers/requests but haven't been able to commit yet. They did not want to ruin my life. Brian did say that he had brought me down to give me a better life and if he had called the police my life would have been over. It is something I struggle with, letting them down as I did when they had shown me such love.It was the catalyst for this book. "I started writing it as a thank-you letter to Mrs Clough and it just transformed." He asked permission to write it, but knows they are a private family. "A lot of people have said things that did not need to be said. I hope that I haven't. I hope I can do that, the book has already benefitted 2 childrens charities and a homeless shelter. I would have gone to prison because the amount was substantial. My life at that point would have been ruined by a criminal record, a reputation. I had no education. I would have had no chance if they had done what they could have done. The next day, I went out to take Del the dog for a walk when someone emerged from behind a clump of trees. This story is incredible. As a younger forest fan I only hear of Brian in stories told to me and this is by far the best one. What a lovely man he was and what a brilliant way to tell it from Craig, you can hear the regret he lives with in the way parts of the story are told but I’m sure Brian knows you were sorry and he’d have loved this story being told by you. Thank you for sharing this brilliant story.