Mention the name of Hake in Kent footballing circles and most people would mention Chatham Town Chairman and First Team manager Kevin. But Gary, Kevin’s brother, who is the Chats General manager, has a side interest that will surprise many…  

Away from the pitch and football, Gary is a published Children’s author, and his latest book has just come onto the shelves. We were keen to find out more and Gary was good enough to speak to us and we started by asking how he started – he told us, “I began writing the books in 2014, following a decision to purely “give it a go!” and it is something I have always wished to attempt.”

“I have always read books to both of my sons and seeing their enjoyment and focus when reading to them made me realise what a remarkable achievement it would be to reproduce that same feeling for others.”

“I have always read and enjoyed collecting books which I suppose has manifested itself into the form of a literary side!”  

Gary has now six books that have been published although he confessed, “It is the last one of which I am the proudest – “The Worried Blue Bird”. The original idea was to create a pair of characters who were always taught a valuable life lesson by the end of each adventure.”

“I focussed on the 3 main life skills which I attempt to develop on my own children, which was quite simply; conduct and manners towards others, tidying up after yourself and respecting the property of others.” 

“My original idea was to simply have one book published, so I could be proud of myself for doing so and hopefully teaching life skills to others through the power of a book.”

“When you produce the first book you learn so much about your style of writing, terminology, and types of illustrations, so all of this gets injected into the second book and so on…and you learn something new each time and attempt to better the previous one based on your findings.” 

“The inspiration was generated through my previous career as a teacher where I experienced a large number of students who lacked life skills, manners, and general awareness of how to conduct themselves.”

“However, in saying this, I also had the opportunity to teach some truly outstanding pupils of which I am extremely thankful and privileged, who in turn, I learned some valuable skills from.”

“I aimed the original series of books to 4-year-olds, where the prime opportunity lies for parents and carers to instil the life skills I attempt to teach within the books.” 

Hugo is one of the main characters that Gary has created – we wanted to know more… “Hugo was a made fictional character with a play on words. I wanted him to be a superhero…everyone loves a superhero…. but this one is different. He is a “Hupersero”! Which basically means he does not see himself as any type of hero just a regular person. But without knowing it, his acts of kindness help others! But to him… he is just normal!”

We then asked about the reaction for friends and family; “(they were all) Supportive from the start. My wife encouraged me, family and friends encouraged me along the way to write more and more books and the feedback has been wonderful.”

“I actually managed to keep the first book a complete secret from almost everyone I knew and sprung it upon people to gain the shock factor, which in my view, added to the surprise. “You? You have written a book??” was the general consensus,” Gary recalled. 

So, what gives the Chats general manager the biggest buzz – success on the pitch or writing and being published? Thoughtfully Gary said, “Ask any ageing footballer and they will tell you that nothing comes close to the buzz of playing football, scoring a goal…making a great tackle or delivering a pass with pinpoint accuracy!!”

“I did not do many of those, but the ones I did, I enjoyed very much! I am attempting to leave behind a legacy for the youth, where hopefully my stories get passed down through the generations.”

“I may not be around to witness this in decades to come, however I am sure that would give me the greatest satisfaction. The royalties received from my book sales are simply given to charity, I do not keep any of them from books, but I did keep the profit from the first book as a reminder of the hard work put in.” 

So, what can we expect next from the Hake pen? “I have notebooks and a head full of ideas, but writing a book cannot be done through allocating a scheduled regular time slot. It has to be done when it feels right, and the creative process is ready to evolve.”

“There will be many more, of that I am positive, however like anything designed to last the test of time, it has to have thought, care and passion poured into it… if one of these elements are missing. it just does not work!”