Former Burnley FC chairman Barry Kilby writes autobiography

Barry Kilby has written ‘Starting From Scratch – Burnley Football Club, Business and Prostate Cancer’.

The book details the life of Mr Kilby, who took over as chairman of Burnley in 1998 when it was at the bottom of the third tier of English football and in big financial difficulties.

He helped turn the club around and saw it rise to the Premier League.

Mr Kilby shares first hand stories and personal recollections of his time at the helm at Turf Moor. All the ups and downs, both on and off the pitch, are covered.

In 2012 Mr Kilby stepped down from his role after his prostate cancer diagnosis.

Former Burnley FC chairman Barry Kilby with his book ‘Starting From Scratch – Burnley Football Club, Business and Prostate Cancer’. (Image: Legends Publishing)

He remained as a director to see all the years in the Premier League with Sean Dyche and then relegation and the sale of the club to ALK Capital. 

Speaking to the Lancashire Telegraph, Mr Kilby said he wrote the book to raise money for his charity, Barry Kilby Prostate Cancer Appeal, and to also to tell Burnley fans what happened behind the scenes while he was in charge,

He said: “It’s on the market to raise funds for my prostate cancer charity

“It’s also a record of my time at Burnley and the different managers it had.

“It’s not just about football either, it’s also a little bit of an autobiography where I talk about by upbringing, how I made my money, why I had to fire managers, and my experience with Robert Maxwell and Rupert Murdoch

“I don’t think there is another club in England where the town identifies with its football club as much as the people of Burnley and I wanted the book to show this.

“I really hope it’s a book that a lot of Burnley fans will enjoy reading”

This is also the story of how he has devoted his energies to the Barry Kilby Prostate Cancer Appeal, which was launched in 2014.

He said: “I got a prostate cancer test almost by accident.

“When I was diagnosed It felt like the end of the world and didn’t know how long I was going to live. Luckily, I caught it early.”

Since setting up the charity and holding prostate cancer testing days, Mr Kilby says they may have save the lives of around 600 men.

The book’s publisher, Legends Publishing, has shared a preview of the book with the Lancashire Telegraph.

Here is a brief extract:

”What a day. What an experience. The whole town going wild. Such days don’t come often. Make the most of them.

"But then reality as the fog clears the next day. Read the papers. Planning for the next season. How would we get on? Would we find it easy? I am not a natural optimist.

“Would we come straight back down? How much money would we need? ‘Kilby get your hands in your pocket.’ I’d probably need to.

“But the plaudits were arriving. The media were recognising that this was now a ‘proper little football club.’

“Embedded in its local community, each director a local man bar Clive, but he was an adopted Lancastrian, he’d been here so long.

“Each director steeped in the club history, passed to us by our fathers.

“Recognition was now coming the club’s way. We believed in honesty and hard work; none of us had our money handed to us on a plate.

“Previous disillusionment with the club had been replaced by optimism. Ailing fortunes were now replaced by forward thinking.

“And my dad. From that game with him when we had been ejected from the ground, to this.

“That Sunday morning after the Scunthorpe day, the sense of achievement, the quiet satisfaction, the calm after the storm before the phone calls started, was just marvellous.”

It is not Mr Kilby’s first book and he published ‘As Good As Some’ back in 2018.

If anyone purchases a book from direct from the Barry Kilby Prostate Cancer Appeal charity it will be signed and authenticated.

It retails for £25 and all proceeds will go to the charity. Link here: www.the-bkpca.com

The book can also be purchased on the Legend’s Publishing website at: www.legendspublishing.net