A SALTCOATS author has spoken of his love for his home town and how he managed to write a book in just a month.

Scott Alcroft, a former St Mary’s Primary and St Andrew’s Academy pupil, gave the Herald an exclusive interview about his first book ‘The Bunnet’, all about a man living on the West Coast of Scotland who is down on his luck and can’t catch a break.

Scott spoke candidly from the Costa Del Sol in Spain where he currently lives and explained what the book is all about, he said: “It’s about a wee guy from the West Coast of Scotland named JJ. He has no luck, no job, no woman and lives with his Mum still.

“His life revolves around going to the bookies, going to the pub and chasing women. Nothing’s going right for him until he meets an old Irish guy in the pub. The old fella suggests he gets himself a “Bunnet” to help him in the bookies. It drowns out the lights and distractions etc. JJ gets himself one and his life changes. This isn’t a normal bunnet he gets, it turns out to be a lucky bunnet in more ways than one.

“What will JJ do? Who will he tell? He then embarks on a trip to Ireland to find the old fella to thank him and his life completely changes. The book follows him on his journey.”

Scott got into writing about two years ago when he was asked to blog for a football website and then he went on to write for the top two Celtic FC online magazines. He interviewed ex players and fans for my very own feature which was very popular but gave it up in the summer to focus on his move to Spain.

The security officer told of how he got some inspiration for his book and he added: “I like a wee flutter myself every now and then and these characters in the book are people that I’ve actually known in my life. When I’m in the bookies myself I have a wee weird trait that I use. If I put a bet on and it loses, I throw that pen away. If it wins, I keep it. A lucky pen if you like. I think we’d all like something that would bring us luck when we put a bet on. I always kinda had the story in my head and one night I thought, why not start typing away? So I did. I wrote the book in less than four weeks. Just doing the odd chapter every now and then after work.”

The 40-year-old hasn’t forgotten his roots though and still holds his home town dear in his heart, he said: “I think Saltcoats really is a special wee place. What other town in Scotland can boast a European Cup winner and a Grammy winner? I love the people too, people from Saltcoats don’t suffer fools gladly. I like the atmosphere in the pubs and in the town. It gets a bit of a bad name at times but I’m proud to tell people I’m from Sunny Saltcoats by the sea.”

Scott wished to thank a friend who helped him get his book the publishing stage and said: “The person that I went to for advice was Des Dillon. Des is an old friend of mine and creator of “Singing I’m no a Billy, He’s a Tim”. He gave me the advice to go down the Amazon Kindle route and then paperback so that’s what I did.”

The book is available to download on Kindle or to buy on paperback on Amazon. Just go to the search bar on the Amazon website and type in, “The Bunnet”. It’s £5.99 on Kindle and £9.99 on paperback. Scott added: “It’s perfect for a wee birthday gift or a stocking filler for Christmas. It’s not for little eyes unfortunately. There’s a wee swear word or two in it as it’s set in the bookies or a pub for the most part.”