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Title – Rock Bottom - Paul Merson

Author(s) - Paul Merson (with a chapter by Lorraine Merson)  

Publisher – Bloomsbury Paperbacks

ISBN - 0747526435

Released - 1995. 

Price - £6.99

Available - Amazon

Review – Paul Merson’s original autobiography is not your stereotypical football book – there are no tales of the player who realised his boyhood dreams, played for England and won countless trophies. Instead Merson talks – in blunt detail – of the thousands of pounds lost every day at the bookies, the drinking, the drugs and the rows at home.

The chapter by Merson’s then wife helps to add another dimension to proceedings and the diary kept by Merse during his time at the Prory is candid and confessional.  There is also light hearted relief in an account of otherwise troubled times; Merson, having decided to go public with his story, gave an exclusive to the Daily Mirror. At 11:30pm – with a major sporting story about to break - ‘The Sun’ were tipped off that their media rivals were running a story on ‘Paul Merton’s drug hell’. And so, with Merson and wife hiding away in Paris , the British media descended on the home of the famed TV comic instead of Arsenal’s star midfielder.

Back in his early days, Merson was thought of as a ‘bad boy’ and a ‘disgraced soccer star’. He has since shown great strength to overcome many of his troubles and rescue his career. This book is refreshingly honest and well worth a read, if only because it breaks the footballing mould.

What they say -

Independent "Utterly compelling”

Amazon -" In this book Paul Merson lays himself bare. Writing from the perspective of a recovering addict and using extracts from the diaries he kept during his rehabilitation, Merson delivers a candid self portrait.”

FootballChoince.com "A frank account of his addictions to drugs, alcohol and gambling and of his rehabilitation"