Craig Bromfield was just 13 years old when Brian Clough, on a whim, took him and his older brother Aaron in. 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. The 2nd reason I wrote it (maybe selfishly because of guilt but also because it's my true charachter) is because I would love to somehow be able to help a kid or two who is in the kind of situation I was as a child, have a better life. A really interesting read. Terms like 'a journey' or 'a rollercoaster' are used too often but Craig's story really does take you on a trip. Not just the AtoZ of the the timeline, but if you are of a certain vintage (I'm 40) and have certain interests (football, Forest, Brian Clough) it is a time machine to a world that now seems so long ago but also related to what we all are now as adults. I broke down in the office and could not stop crying for 10 to 15 minutes. I was angry with myself for not fixing it. It left me with such a hole. I have had a fantastic life since meeting Brian but nothing can follow that. It is heart-breaking that he has gone. I was crushed."

To do that I had to be honest about the life I had before I met them. If I then went on to hide what I did the whole book would be a lie. This isn't about what people think of me. It'a about what people think of them. Whatever consequences or criticism I face, I deserve. 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.

Brian has a rifle for shooting pheasants, although it has yet to be fired at anything. Now, he threatens to use it on those milling around outside. For those few days, he retreated totally into himself. He was as quiet and as alone as I ever saw him. Those days will be the start of his being dragged down by alcohol. Bromfield’s depiction of Clough rubber stamped that persona shown to the media but he also showed a softer side. The more charitable fatherly side. I’ll admit I was disappointed as Bromfield’s loyalties when tested landed with his friends rather than with the man who changed his life.

Oh, but most of all, you will fall in love with the family behind the man you all thought you knew. It's a love letter, an IOU for emotional kindness given and an apology all in one. I really can see your point of view and agree with 99% of it but I hope this at least explains my thinking. 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. 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." What happened at that point is that I flipped. I realised the gift that he had given me. I changed as a person. I went from this scruffy little kid who was bullied by everybody to a managing director of three companies over in Warsaw earning six-figure salaries."He saw Clough twice after leaving. The first time, a few months later, Clough had just rewritten his will and Craig had got a mention. “He told me, ‘I said under no circumstances whatsoever is that thieving little shit to receive a penny.’” The last time he saw him, in late 1994, Clough said he, Simon and Nigel had considered getting the police involved. In the book, Craig quotes Clough as saying: “The three of us decided that we’d brought you down to give you a better life, and if the police had been involved, that would have been your life over. So we cut you loose.” Clough told him they still loved him. “Be good, and don’t be a stranger” were Clough’s last words to him. Craig never saw him again. Gorgeously moving, hilariously funny and incredibly insightful. Craig Bromfield’s beautifully written book about his life with Brian Clough is one you’ll never forget as there are laughs, tears and life lessons. It also solved lots of Christmas present dilemmas as I bought ten copies.” – Julie McAffrey, Daily Mirror Even now, he follows Nigel's teams with a passion, having switched his support from Burton Albion to Mansfield when he moved clubs. He goes to games home and away. "It is my weak way of showing I am loyal when I was not loyal as a kid," he explains. Be Good, Love Brian has got everything – love, friendship, laugh-out-loud comedy, football, and a heart-breaking betrayal. Craig Bromfield's feel-good story about Brian Clough's life changing generosity ends up something akin to a modern-day Shakespearian tragedy” – Simon Hattenstone, The Guardian When discovered by the Clough family, it was handled delicately. The authorities were not involved, there was even severance pay.