Ed Couzens-Lake is a writer based in Chichester, West Sussex (where I studied English and Media). He was kind enough us to speak to us at ReadNorwich:
Ed, when did you first become a Norwich City fan?
I don’t think many of us ever ‘become’ a Norwich City fan, it’s not as if it’s an option or a considered choice.
I remember, without any prompting or decision-making being made at all I was at school one day and we were just talking about the Canaries, their players, the matches-my Dad went to home games and always brought me a programme back.
All things yellow and green just becomes part of your life, it’s natural.
How did you get into writing?
My village school, the sadly now closed Brancaster Primary in my home village.
The junior class teacher (aged 7-11 back then) was an absolute inspiration of a man, Hugh Townsend.
He had a gift for recognising a talent for his pupils at an early age and whatever it was-art, sport, writing-and let us all find our way in what we loved the best.
I owe him just about everything I have ever done or achieved in my professional writing life-if he hadn’t sat there with us, always encouraging and challenging us, that fire would have gone out.
I could name a fair few who followed in terms of how they encouraged my writing and I am grateful to them as well.
But he was the first, he started me off.
You’ve written a number of biographies featuring former players such as Jeremy Goss and Peter Mendham. How did you approach writing their stories?
I am curious about people, writing about their lives and stories.
I just have an urge to tell stories-and so many people have interesting ones but might not want or feel inclined to tell them.
Gossy needed some persuading.
‘No-one will be interested in my story; it happened so long ago. Everyone has forgotten me’.
I managed to get an interview with him for Backpass magazine and it went down well so he grew into the idea.
But he remained modest about it throughout and the day before the launch at Jarrold he was saying to me:
“What if no one comes?”’
What happened on the day?
A very large queue of people all wanting to buy the book and have the chance to meet and chat with him-the event went on way past its allocated time.
If someone has a good story to tell, there will always be a lot of interest. And the person in question doesn’t need, as I have found with other books, to be famous for the book to sell well.
The best way to tell a person’s story, for me, is to find somewhere nice and quiet, get the coffee on, sit at a table and just tell them to ‘go’ -and then keep quiet while you are writing it for them.
You also write a lot about the local Norfolk area. Is this something that Norwich should play up more when approaching players?
I’m passionate about Norfolk. It’s my home.
I have lived, somehow and by complete accident it would seem, near Chichester now for nearly three decades but, much as I like the area, it’s still only temporary lodgings (someone referred to me as the ‘West Sussex writer’ so I had to put them right on that), and I spend a lot of time in Norfolk still, either in Brancaster or in Norwich.
Norwich and Norfolk has proved to be a major pull for our players in the past-they may not have realised it when they first came here but it soon became their home.
Darren Huckerby is one of the most well-known ex-Norwich names to have made Norfolk and Norwich their second home, but there are others- Dean Ashton, John Ruddy, and Grant Holt.
Bryan Gunn is about as Scottish as you can get, but he lived locally for ages after he packed up playing.
It’s more of a lure for older players with families but even younger ones on the cusp of their careers will ‘big up’ Norfolk at any opportunity.
How do you feel Norwich are at the moment?
Like so many Norwich teams of the past, we are on the cusp of something that could be very very good-exceptional even.
We’ve been so close in the past.
A very well established top-flight team under John Bond.
A major trophy and European football (until the post-Heysel ban on English clubs) with Ken Brown.
A team that bookies were taking odds on to do the League and FA Cup double under Dave Stringer in 1988/89 – 25/1 as I recall.
Mike Walker. Paul Lambert. Daniel Farke. Lots of near misses and what ifs?
Now it feels as if the cycle is spinning towards more possibilities of good things, another promotion next season maybe and hanging on in the Premier League.
It’s not a given, not yet. But you get the feeling we’re gearing up for another special few years.
What are you currently working on?
Loads of things – quite a few biographies as the ‘ghost’.
I have another book in the works, which will be looking at the history of goalkeeping and some of the exponents of the art who have played the game over the last 150 years or so.
I don’t think I will be writing any more books about the Canaries – there was talk of one for a while about the Daniel Farke years, but I think the moment has passed. It might have been better written whilst he was at the club, so the whole roller coaster ride could have been documented as it happened.
Lots of his former players were happy to be interviewed for it, but I think the time for that one has gone now, for me anyway, but that might be a great project for someone else!
Roll on 2026/27 -it might be rather special….
You can find out more about Ed’s books on Norwich City and local history, as well as his writing services here https://www.couzenslake.co.uk/
