"A funny thing happened to me on the way to this column - I had a heart attack".
That's the opening line to the latest piece by my good friend Norman Giller, the veteran sports journalist who has never missed a deadline.
His article, on the Sports Journalists' Association (SJA) website, continues:
"I am tip-tapping this on my iPhone in hospital, because here in the cardiac ward there is no access to the interweb.
My ticker invasion came without warning on Monday evening while I was editing my 93rd book...
Within 30 minutes of the first assault I was being whizzed by ambulance to hospital here in dozy, delightful Dorset, where we just happen to have one of the finest cardiac units in the land (silent toast to my hero Nye Bevan and the NHS).
As I laboriously type this on the tiny keyboard, a nurse is tut-tutting at my bedside because I am ignoring the surgeon's instructions to lay down my arms, or at least my typing fingers while he assesses the extent of the damage..."
Unsurprisingly, the surgeon was taken aback by Giller's extraordinary output. Aged 70, the former Daily Express football writer gives a whole new meaning to the adjective "prolific".
He writes an average of four books a year plus columns, plus a stream of comments to blogs, plus Facebook comments, plus tweets and emails. The guy just never stops writing.
So get well soon, Norman. Your publisher - and your many readers - need you... as do your friends.
Source: Sports Journalists' Association
