Daniel Gray and Alan McCredie joined forces this month for a hugely enjoyable podcast with Nutmeg magazine, in celebration of their new book, Snapshot: Scenes and Stories from the Heartlands of Scottish Football. The conversation is a joy, filled with laughter and anecdotes, as the authors give their tongue in cheek descriptions of the launch (online) with the Portobello bookshop – ‘like the last days of Rome… a debauched event’, and the research – ‘the Rolling Stones on tour… but without a lot of the elements of that’ – that took them from Lowland to island in search of stories and scenes, chips and pies.

Daniel opens with the key question… ‘Was Snapshot just an excuse to eat chips in a number of different places’. And Alan’s response? ‘Yes’ And the best? Berwick or Grantown-on-Spey. Alan also found the best pie – ‘Say AYE to a PIE’ – but you’ll have to listen to find out where.

The authors read from the book and discuss the best of the old grounds, the love of the game, the traditions, the turf, the games, the cake and ale, crumbs and gruel. They discuss the asphalt pitches of black ash and later, blaze-red ash – ‘underneath our kicking feet anything will do!’ – from the Bings of West Lothian

Keep the joy of football going. Tune into the Nutmeg podcast and… buy the book.