Telling the Story of Jimmy Bone: Quickfire Q+A with Ben Ramage

Posted on Sep 25, 2026

Join us as Ben Ramage , author of Bone Idol: the striking, definitive story of Jimmy Bone, takes part in our series of quick-fire Q&As!
What is a quick-fire Q&A?
We have our interviewee pick a number at random and we ask them the general question listed next to it.
Shortly after we switch to asking book-specific questions, to give you a brief insight into our wonderful writers and their books.

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If you could summarise your writing process in five words, what would they be?

Research, is probably the first one. Practice, I guess, would be part of it. Create. Overanalyse. And then fine-tune.

What was your favourite book as a child?

I'd probably say the one that's coming to me is The Hobbit because I remember my dad reading The Hobbit to me when I was growing up. He'd be trying to get me to go to sleep so he'd read me The Hobbit and then I would purposely try and stay awake which probably really annoyed him. And now that I'm a dad, I realise that was probably really annoying because he just wanted to get me to go to sleep! I'd just be like, ah, just a few more pages.

Where is your happy place?

I'd say the Isle of Harris is where I go with my wife the most. It is just a magical place. It's so relaxing. Harris is just incredible. It's like single track roads and there's sheep on them. It's like going back in time a little bit. And then the mobile signal is terrible. So you have to switch off from everything. It makes you slow down. If I could go somewhere tomorrow, that would be where I would go.

What is your biggest writing distraction?

I'd probably say it's my son now. He's only just coming up on one year old, so writing a book and having a newborn baby. I don't know if I'd recommend it as the best practice for writing a book. And I don't mean it in a negative way because he's amazing. But yeah, I would say probably the biggest distraction at the moment would be having a young child.

What's the main message you would like people to take from this book?

I think the fact that you can be anything you want, really, I think that would be the message. Because Jimmy grew up in quite a not well-off family, in a mining community, he was working down the mining pit when he was 16 years old and he wanted something more than that. And even when he was getting knocked back from trials, he kept going because he just kept believing that this was right for him and that it was going to happen. I think that message of not giving up and believing that if you want something enough, you can make it happen. I think that's a really good message in any walk of life, not just in football. I think that's what's nice about it is that it transcends just sport. And I think a lot of sport is like that. So, yeah, I would say not giving up.

What’s your favourite chapter from the book and why?

I quite like the chapter about Africa because I think a lot of fans will know about what he did at St Mirren and what he did at Partick Thistle because he was such a hero there. They might have heard that he'd gone to Africa but I think what he achieved there, actually winning trophies and working with a completely different set of players, some of whom didn't even speak English, the fact that he got them to beat clubs from other countries in Africa, I think that's quite incredible. I think it kind of shows how good he must have been as a coach. I've heard many people talk about that but that is proof that he went and did it somewhere else too and that's something that people maybe aren't aware of. And it's quite an emotional chapter as well – it ends with a disaster. I'm hoping that that chapter is one that people remember after reading.

Did writing the book change your own understanding or opinions?

Of Jimmy, I would say definitely, because I thought I had an understanding of his career but I didn't really get the whole picture of his life. So that's why I loved when I spoke to him, I was actually getting the whole picture of everything that he did, even after his playing career. I found that really interesting. And it was speaking to everyone else about him that really opened it up because he was really modest. He always downplayed his achievements. But then speaking to John Robertson at Hearts basically saying that Jimmy taught him how to be a striker – and John was Hearts’ best ever goal scorer so you realise he wasn't just a good coach, he was one of the best coaches. And when you hear other managers that have won major trophies saying that he played a massive part in it, it's a similar thing – he wasn't just quite good at his job, he was exceptional at his job. And it was really nice to hear that from players that have gone on to win the Champions League, that have gone on to be top scorers of their clubs. He made an impact on really major footballers. I feel like I didn't understand his impact on Scottish football until I properly spoke to everyone else about him as well. So that was quite a nice part of it.

What advice would you give to someone interested in writing non-fiction/biography?

I think just for writing in general I would say to trust your gut. And I would say to try new things. Don't worry so much about the rules. Obviously, the rules are there but you know, rules are there to be bent and to played with a little bit. Try and surprise readers as well, I think, sometimes that can be effective. And practice. I think it's very rare that you're going to write something and it's exactly how you want it to be the first time. I think being humble enough to realise that that might need to be reworked again and again until you get it right. That doesn't mean you've failed, it just means that you're making something better.