BILL LECKIE's first book, Penthouse And Pavement , was released in September 1999 and shot straight to the top of the sales charts. Two years later he collaborated with part-time footballer Des McKeown on another hit, Don't Give Up The Day Job . Charlie Spuds is his first novel and he is now working on a follow up to Penthouse and Pavement and a collection of his Scottish Sun columns. Bill became addicted to writing when his primary school headmaster, Sam McDougall, sorted it for him to cover a St Mirren match for the Paisley Pictorial at age EIGHT. He has been in newspapers since 1981, working for the Clydebank Press, Clydebank Post, Paisley & Renfrewshire Gazette, Govan Post and Paisley Daily Express before moving into national newspapers in 1988. He had a short spell on Scotland 's first-ever national sports paper, The Daily Winner - short because it closed after 51 issues. He also had a short spell on David Murray's Sunday Scot - short because it closed after six months. Since then, he had edited the cult hit Scottish Football Today , been sports editor of The Daily Record , covered English football for Scotland On Sunday but has always been happiest back at The Scottish Sun , it says here. Since 1997, he has been the paper's sports columnist, covering the 1998 and 2002 World Cups, Euro 2000 and Euro 2004 and a string of European club finals as well as more than 700 domestic matches at every ground in Scotland . He named Scottish Sports Journalist of the Year in 1999 and in 2003 shared the award with Sunday Times writer Richard Wilson.