He wrote his first novel An Irish Heartbeat in 2011. He formed a health and fitness company ( Speedflex) with Graham Wylie and Alan Shearer, with Ferris as Chief Executive. Charlton was as good as his word and the following year, Ferris persuaded his childhood girlfriend Geraldine McCaugherty to move to England, where they were eventually married. They weathered the anxieties of the abrupt end of his football career and dragged themselves up through education – Geraldine qualified as a teacher, Paul as a barrister and physiotherapist. This is a brave yet humorous book which will serve a valuable purpose by highlighting that this disease can be beaten and hopefully encouraging that every man goes and gets a PSA test regularly a prevention is far better than cure.

I tried to finish the book on a positive note, but I thought the cancer diagnosis might be coming so the last bit of it, I felt very emotional when I was writing it,” he admits. It might have attracted a more traditional audience, especially in the football-mad city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, to have related the title of the book to his days in St James’s Park’s inner sanctum.

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The passing was the dread at the end of it, but the thought of it was there with me from I was six years old. An Irish Catholic mother of seven, she had done it all before but she hadn’t done it all before and been fragile herself. Yet five years after arriving in Newcastle, during which time he was heralded by Kevin Keegan as the most exciting talent he had seen, it was all but over. Paul Ferris has written a book that transcends genres...Ferris writes with the sort of fluency that, on the pitch, once impressed peers such as Paul Gascoigne.Ferris has gone beyond standard sports autobiographies. The Boy On The Shed is of a time and place, of Ireland, of Northern Ireland, of growing up a Catholic on a Protestant estate in Lisburn in the 1970s. It is a story of everyday sectarianism and its effects...These books offer a window on another world. Paul Ferris spent much of his childhood in Lisburn looking through one. What he saw, how he understood it and didn't understand it, is gripping. * Irish Times * A simply fabulous autobiography from my fellow countryman, which is a WHOLE LOT MORE than your typical ex-professional footballer's "me and the lads" tales...

Today, thanks to a chance meeting with multi-millionaire businessman Graham Wylie, Paul is the managing director of a health and fitness company that recently opened five new outlets and plans to open several more in the coming months. I had only been talking to him a couple of minutes when he revealed he had prostate cancer. There was a clue in the final paragraph of his book — “I’ve felt the first chill of winter. I fear that it’s just around the corner for me.”It is also not a run-of-the-mill book about football, but a well-rounded, exceedingly candid account of his life on and off the pitch and of his family, warts and all. ( Belfast Telegraph) Paul Ferris has written a book that transcends genres...Ferris writes with the sort of fluency that, on the pitch, once impressed peers such as Paul Gascoigne.Ferris has gone beyond standard sports autobiographies. The Boy On The Shed is of a time and place, of Ireland, of Northern Ireland, of growing up a Catholic on a Protestant estate in Lisburn in the 1970s. It is a story of everyday sectarianism and its effects...These books offer a window on another world. Paul Ferris spent much of his childhood in Lisburn looking through one. What he saw, how he understood it and didn't understand it, is gripping. ( Irish Times) Ferris was born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland. In 1981, he signed for Newcastle United from Lisburn Youth in Northern Ireland and became the club's youngest ever debutant when he appeared aged just 16 years and 294 days. He scored his only senior goal against Bradford City in 1984. A medial ligament injury meant he played just 14 matches and moved to Barrow F.C., with whom he won the FA Trophy at Wembley before moving into local non-league football with Gateshead. Once a series of hamstring and knee injuries had brought his playing days to a premature end, he would retrain as a physiotherapist and eventually return to St James’s Park, working during the high times under Keegan and then the rollercoaster reigns of Kenny Dalglish, Ruud Gullit, Graeme Souness and Bobby Robson as anarchy at times descended upon the Toon. A fascinating life story, bearing much heart and soul as well as being 'warts and all'. It is well worth reading for its honesty and its insights by any reader and will be a particularly absorbing read for anyone with an interest or love for 'the beautiful game' as well as Ulster readers and those who remember the would-be local football star from these shores. * Irish Tatler *

From the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, The Boy on the Shed, comes a powerful tale of grit and resilience, told with great humour, openness and profound bravery.I have a different story. I was diagnosed with intermediate localised prostate cancer in January 2021, had a mini-stroke the next month just 10 days after the first Covid vaccination, couldn't have a prostatectomy because of the stroke which delayed treatment decisions, had an awful time on statins before discovering that there are alternatives, had the standard 6 months of hormone therapy and standard 20 days of radiotherapy, followed by post-radiotherapy proctitis. My issues and problems are different from his. Not because he particularly enjoys the attention, or the travelling, or the phone calls, or the questions. But because only a matter of weeks ago he had his final session of radiotherapy, treatment for the prostate cancer he was diagnosed with in late 2016.

On another occasion, his diminutive mother and father were beaten up by a gang when they were seen coming out of the only Catholic club in the town. The stuff about my mother was painful to write. Painful to experience, but painful to write. My family reading that again will be tortured by that, but I had to write it.He doesn't like Ireland, his home country, and how it has been throughout most of his life. He has not come to terms with the death of his mother over 25 years ago, and he has huge self doubt about himself, his abilities and his health. From the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, The Boy on the Shed , comes a powerful tale of grit and resilience, told with great humour, openness and profound bravery. Why so open? He explains: “I’ve always been open. There’s a freedom in being honest. I didn’t want this to be a book about my life in football, both as a player and as a physiotherapist. Writing about the people I had played and worked with, such as Kevin Keegan or Alan Shearer or Ruud Gullit, would have been the easiest way to get published, but I wanted to give an account of who I am for my kids and their kids.