George Best dreamed of writing Best-seller

HIS own life story, which encompassed a meteoric rise, outrageous hedonistic excesses and a tragic slide toward self-destruction, was more compelling than almost any work of fiction.

However, it has emerged that George Best, arguably the greatest footballer to grace the British game, dreamed of relaunching himself as a writer of detective novels.

Best made efforts to establish himself as an author after spending a turbulent year in Edinburgh with Hibs. He urged Graeme Wright, his biographer, to help him turn his long-suppressed literary aspirations into a reality after he failed to save the Easter Road club from relegation in 1980.

Wright, who became a friend and confidante of the footballing icon during his time in the Scottish capital, said Best was keen to show his critics he was more than a fast-living playboy.

The New Zealander, who lodged with the footballer in the city's Palmerston Place while ghostwriting Where Do I Go Now?, told Scotland on Sunday: "After we had finished the book George got in touch and said he had these ideas for some fictional stories, mostly detective stories. We had got on well and he asked if I would be interested in helping him to work them out.

"Unfortunately I was extremely busy rebuilding an old house and being assistant editor of (cricket yearbook] Wisden so I really didn't have time to do it. It's a real shame that it came to nothing because it would have helped to keep George busy and would have given him something to focus on."

Wright, whose collaboration with Best became a best-seller, said the former Manchester United star had a long-standing desire to show off his creative talents. "Very few people saw him as anything other than a footballer or a playboy and that frustrated him. Some of the books that he'd read and the films he'd watched made me realise that he was far more intelligent than people sometimes gave him credit for.

"George was a very articulate person and a fantastic teller of anecdotes and stories."