Andrew Prestwich (LLB Law, 1985)
Pictured left to right are flatmates: Alex Smith (LLB Law, 1985), John Topping (BSc Mech Eng, 1985) whose life-changing accident features in PREZ, and me. We took this in 2017 in front of the Grant Arms, revisiting our local pub in Cotteridge where we shared a flat in 1984-85.
I studied law at Birmingham (1982-85) and was a barrister for 30 years before taking early retirement.
My new book PREZ is the story of my son’s journey through grassroots and then professional academy football at Nottingham Forest, although football is just the carrier for a book that is really about parenting, justice and education.
In part, it’s a warning to parents of would-be footballers. Writing the many comic scenes was fun but the darker scenes, later in the book, were more difficult for me because I experienced genuine anger at the adversity we faced.
An article in ‘Old Joe’ (Autumn 2023) entitled How to get published was instrumental in PREZ being published because that interview with Birmingham author Professor Luke Kennard (now shortlisted for the Booker Prize) prompted me to submit the book to publishers. Further information about PREZ can be found at my website, where there are also links to the PREZ Instagram and Facebook pages.