Paul Kimmage has revealed how he was 'caught between a rock and a hard place' when he was asked to hand over 600,000 words of interview transcripts when he pulled out of writing Brian O'Driscoll's autobiography.
The O'Driscoll book – now ghost written by Alan English – is due out in October around the same time as Roy Keane's second book and during a discussion with Joe Molloy and Tommy Martin on Off the Ball this afternoon, Kimmage opened up about how he felt handing over the transcripts:
I wouldn't say I was happy but, you know, I was between a rock and a hard place. I'd been paid 50% of the royalties, I'd put three years works into it so I wasn't prepared to kiss three years work – at a time when I had no job – goodbye.
He did however, make a point of suggesting that had he been in a better position he would have fought it:
If I could I would have said ''No. I'll see you in court.'' I couldn't afford to that, so I had to give him the transcript.
When asked if he'd accept someone else's transcripts, Kimmage did admit that if he was in English's position that he 'probably would' have accepted them but would not be able to deliver the book in such a short period of time.
The conversation had arisen out of a discussion around which book (O'Driscoll and Keane) will be the better read, with Kimmage stating that he'd put money on it being the O'Driscoll offering:
The 600,000 words of the transcript that I delivered to Alan English is a good book. There is a good book there and I think Alan will deliver it.
I for one am very excited about both.
You can listen to Kimmage from 18 minutes in below.
