He was born in Liverpool in 1957 and began his journalism career on the Reading Evening Post in 1980, working as a football writer and columnist at the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo before moving to the Mirror in 1994. In 2000, he was named Columnist of The Year at The British Press Gazette Awards, and, in 2004, was Sports Columnist of The Year in the Sports Journalism Awards. In 2008, Reade released his first book, 44 Years With The Same Bird, documenting his life spent following Liverpool FC, which became a massive bestseller. More recently, Quercus published another bestseller, An Epic Swindle: 44 Months with a Pair of Cowboys, which charts the ownership of Liverpool FC by Hicks and Gillette. (DL)