Grant Young, lifelong Hearts supporter and shirt collector, turns his attention to the stars between the posts for his second book.

This new publication follows Grant’s first, 51 Shirts, that charted the greatest outfield shirts in Heart of Midlothian's history and went on to scoop the prestigious Sunday Times Illustrated Sports Book of the Year in 2023.

Grant’s passion for collecting goalkeeper memorabilia takes centre-stage this time round, with photographs of his extensive collection charting our greatest stoppers from the 1950s to the present day.

Tomorrow, you can join us for a special evening in the Gorgie Suite where host Paul Mitchell will chat to Grant about the making of the new book - where he will be joined by 2006 cup winner Craig Gordon, 2012 cup winner Jamie MacDonald, and our legendary 1998 cup winning gaffer Jim Jefferies.

Click HERE to get your ticket.

Paul interviewed Grant ahead of tomorrow night, and you can catch their Q&A below....

THE BIG INTERVIEW

Q: One small idea for a book and here you are several years later, award-winning author from the first one. The follow-up's always the hardest. How long did it take you to work out what you wanted to do for book two?

Grant: “I had, I think, an idea around goalkeepers but there's always a bit of self-doubt.

It's probably like that difficult second album where the first one was decently successful. I always had the idea that I’d quite like to go a bit more niche and I've always had a fascination with goalkeeping shirts.

Within my collection I've got a few so it resonated with me that that would probably be the second book. I started putting the ideas together and then you still have to go through the publisher to see whether they would give the go-ahead or not.

After putting a pitch together and sending it to them, they said it was a goer. It probably took about 18 months to put everything together and produce the finished article.”

Q:  What's your favourite part of doing this? Is it selecting the shirts? Is it working with the photographer? The photography is amazing in the book, so it's jumping off the page - or is it putting the words together?

Grant: “I think with this one it's been a culmination of a lot of things, and I've had the opportunity to spend time with a lot of the goalkeepers that featured in the book, who have been really gracious with their time.

So even just getting that one-to-one time to try and eke out personal stories has been really interesting and it's been a joy to work with some of these guys. I've enjoyed the research and luckily with Hearts you have a wealth of information to look at like London Hearts plus the scrapbooks.

Also, working with the photographer, Duncan, who's done an amazing job just to try and get that look and feel in the book just right. I think Duncan’s done a superb job. I think it looks amazing.”

Q: Grant, would you agree that Hearts fans have got a special relationship with their goalkeepers? Be it Marshall, Cruickshank, Niemi, Gordon, all the way through. I think there's always been that special relationship.

Grant: “Absolutely. I've been going games since I was seven. My dad and his granddad went before that so I was brought up in tales of Gordon Marshall, then it was Jim Cruikshank. For me you've got Henry Smith, an absolute legend, and then Antti Niemi and Giles Rousset.

You've got Jamie MacDonald, how could you forget Craig Gordon, who potentially is the best goalkeeper that Scotland's ever produced. So you're right, I think we've been so lucky over numerous decades that we have produced some brilliant goalies.”

Q: Goalkeepers' jerseys are slightly different because apart from green, Hearts goalkeepers can wear anything, do you have a personal favourite?”

Grant: “I think it's the one front cover; the Umbro 1978-79 shirt, and that takes me back to going with my dad, uncle, ans cousin - running about the terrace when we were tiny and bringing back memories.”