Breeding Success: My life as a Norfolk Farmer, records the life of well-known farmer and cattle breeder Gavin Alston Paterson. Across almost 200 pages, beautifully-illustrated with photographs spanning nine decades, Gavin reflects on a fascinating life as his family established one of the finest pedigree cattle herds in the country.

The autobiography is also an historical document, telling the story of how Scottish families came down to East Anglia in the 1920s and 1930s and transformed dairy farming in the region.

For me, it was a real privilege to ghost write Gavin’s book and document how the Paterson family went on to enjoy enormous success at cattle shows – including the Royal Norfolk Show – with their pedigree Friesian (and later Holstein) cattle, over more than 60 years.

However, Breeding Success also details other important elements of Gavin’s life: his role with Young Farmers’ Clubs in Norfolk; work as a local councillor; and the role he played in establishing Worsted Festival and seeing it become one of the most popular summer events of the Norfolk calendar; and his time as a director of Norwich City Football Club from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s and as a life vice-president, is still a regular at home matches.

Breeding Success: My Life as a Norfolk Farmer is available in hardback or paperback from bookshops across East Anglia and will also be on sale at the Worstead Festival at the end of July. It is available online from www.poppyland.co.uk and from Mr Paterson at Church Farm, Smallburgh, Norfolk, tel. 01692 536226.