James Edmund Neil Paterson (31 December 1916 – 19 April 1995), known as Neil Paterson, was a Scottish Academy Award winning screenwriter.
Born in Greenock, Renfrewshire (now part of Inverclyde), Paterson graduated from the University of Edinburgh and had a brief career in senior football. He played as an inside left for Scottish League teams Leith Athletic and Dundee United, becoming captain of the latter in the 1936-37 season. Despite his succes...
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James Edmund Neil Paterson (31 December 1916 – 19 April 1995), known as Neil Paterson, was a Scottish Academy Award winning screenwriter.
Born in Greenock, Renfrewshire (now part of Inverclyde), Paterson graduated from the University of Edinburgh and had a brief career in senior football. He played as an inside left for Scottish League teams Leith Athletic and Dundee United, becoming captain of the latter in the 1936-37 season. Despite his success in football – he scored 9 goals from 26 league appearances for United, including a hat-trick – he remained an amateur player, spurning the opportunity to go professional. As an amateur he was automatically released at the end of the season, although he played one further game for the club in an emergency.
After his football career finished he became a writer, initially as a sports journalist for D.C. Thomson and after the Second World War as an author, penning a number of well received novels and short stories. In 1953, he adapted his own...
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