Rugby league legend Brooke to sign his new autobiography in Wakefield event

Brooke played and coached at the highest level of the sport and this year, he has put his memories into written form and brought out an biography detailing his life on and off the field.

Starting with Wakefield Trinity in 1961, his playing career spanned ten years until cruelly ended by injury.

In that time, he won a Rugby League Challenge Cup, two RL Championships, represented Yorkshire, Great Britain and became a British Lion in 1966, repeated in 1968 with a World Cup 'Down Under' all whilst at his beloved Wakefield Trinity and Bradford Northern clubs.

He finished his Trinity career with 183 appearances and was one of the first players inducted into the Trinity Hall of Fame back in 2014. After his playing career finished, he then moved into the coaching world with more success, taking Bradford Northern to Wembley in 1973 and coaching Trinity between 1978 and 1979.

It is not just a rugby league story, however, and his personal life has been fascinating too. Born in Plymouth in 1943, he was adopted as a baby and brought to Wakefield during the Second World War.

The book follows this story into a tale of adoption and re-uniting of families, all starting from a unique story in 1963 when a solitary woman watched the 1963 Challenge Cup final on an old black and white television set in Oxford.

The book is written by Lee Robinson, the Wakefield Trinity historian and founder of Trinity Heritage, and is his first published book.

Brooke said: “I often talked to Lee about my career and after another chat one day, looking through my memorabilia suitcase, he said ‘there is enough for a book here’.

"That was the start and after years of conversations, writing, research, finding printers and more conversations over more cups of tea, the finished product is now out for sale."

Brooke will be attending the book signing event at the Trinity Shop on Saturday (May 14) between 9.30am and 12.30pm, and the book will be available for purchase at £9.99.