Alison Jackson: The wag who had her own goals in life

The late-1990s were what Alison Jackson describes as her Harvey Nics years.

At the time Leeds was booming, the era of Cool Britannia was just about to dawn and with her husband Peter Jackson, the newly appointed manager of Huddersfield Town, life was good. Very good.

“I’d think nothing of going out and and spending a thousand pounds on designer handbags and shoes…Chloe, Chanel, Gucci, Prada. I look at those bags now and think, ‘God, how much did I pay for that?’,” says Alison, now 55. “I felt like I had to play a part and live up to the popular image of a footballer manager’s wife. I might not have been a Victoria Beckham, but I always had fantastic clothes and spent a fortune on beauty treatments.”

Her recollections of that period with the flash cars and VIP invites tick most of the boxes associated with today’s WAGs. However, there was one crucial difference. Alison funded her designer lifestyle with her own money and in the back of her mind she always knew that a run of poor results could see Peter, who, as a player had been the much-loved captain of Bradford City, out of a job.

The couple had met almost 20 years earlier in the Bradford nightclub Time and Place. Her first impression was of a spotty lad, wearing a funny blazer, who she initially mistook for a member of the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band. In fact Peter was centre-half and rising star of Bradford City, not that his day job impressed Alison.

“I know there are some girls who go chasing after footballers, but it didn’t do anything for me,” says Alison, who along with Peter has written a book, Living With Jacko, about their lives inside and outside football. “In fact the only reason I agreed to dance with him was because it was after midnight and I needed a lift home.

“Peter always says I must have spotted the playboy in him, and thought there’d be a sports car waiting outside. In fact it was a yellow Fiat 127, which was about as big as our settee.”

It might not have been love at first sight, but within the year they were married and for a while life was pretty ordinary. The couple spent their honeymoon in a caravan in Primrose Valley, near Scarborough, which they rented from a friend for £25 and having scraped together a deposit for their first house, which cost them £14,000, thoughts turned to having a family.

Their daughter Charlotte was born in 1983, but it was when Alison was pregnant with their son Oliver three years later that the Jacksons’ life changed. Peter left Bradford for Newcastle Utd and while the Premier League was still some years off, the old First Division brought its own rewards.

“Bradford had been a really family orientated club and then suddenly we were in Newcastle and the bar was raised. Being a footballer’s wife was a full-time job.

“I would be lying to say I didn’t enjoy it, I did. Football has enabled us to have a good life, but I always knew that I didn’t want to only be reliant on Peter. It is easy to get sucked into that world, but what happens if they do go off with someone else? You’ve spent your entire life in their shadow and suddenly you’re on your own.”

Always determined to have her own income, Alison, who had trained as a nurse, went back to work.

“Like a lot of mums there came a time when I wanted to be seen as something other than the person who cooks tea and does the washing and being married to Peter that feeling was amplified. When we go out shopping, chances are we’ll be stopped by someone who wants to talk about some memorable moment in his career. It’s great that people feel they have a relationship with him, but the worst thing anyone could say to me is ‘You must have had a great life. Your husband’s been a footballer and a footballer manager, earned lots of money and all you’ve had to do is sit back and powder your nose’.”

As well as being a nurse, Alison has worked as cabin crew for JMC Airlines, ran one of the first Rosemary Conley Diet and Fitness Club franchises and is currently managing director of the Halifax home care provider Caremark Calderdale.

Her medical background came to the fore when Peter was diagnosed with throat cancer five years ago.

“Peter only started smoking when he turned 40. It was a way of keeping the weight off after he finished playing and moved into management. I’ll always remember we were on holiday in Majorca and instead of having a dessert we would have a menthol cigarette.

“I never had another one after we came home, but Peter kept on smoking. He told me he smoked a maximum of 20-a-day, but I knew it was more than that. We’ll never know whether the cancer was directly caused by his smoking, but it is one of his biggest regrets.”

Living With Jacko was born out of the diary Alison kept during Peter’s treatment. It was partly a way to keep her occupied during the long, sleepless nights, but also, she hoped, a way of helping others in a similar position.

“Peter’s way of dealing with the cancer was not deal with it,” she says. “He pretended it didn’t exist and whenever we had an appointment with one of the consultants he would switch off and say, ‘Alison, you listen to them, this is your thing’.

“Fairly early on I decided to write a diary, not because I wanted a constant reminder of the awful time we had been through, but I thought it might be useful for other families going through throat cancer.”

If there’s one theme which emerges from Living with Jacko it’s Alison’s belief that anything can be achieved with hard work.

“When Peter left management in 2011, he was hopeless. Footballers are allowed to live in a cocoon and once they are out they do struggle to adapt.

“I had so many conversations with Peter where he’d tell me that the only thing he knew was football and that he couldn’t do anything else.”

Alison thought different and persuaded him to join her at Caremark Calderdale where he now works as a hands-on carer.

She said: “It’s a little bit different to football management, but I think it has made him realise what a glitzy, sheltered existence footballers have.

“Having said all that, it would be a shame if he didn’t have some involvement in the sport. He’s been a player, a manager and an agent and his knowledge shouldn’t go to waste.”

Meet Alison and Peter across region

To coincide with the publication of their new book, Alison and Peter Jackson are doing a series of book signings across Yorkshire. Catch them at: Huddersfield Town FC shop, September 14, 12.30pm;

WH Smiths Halifax, September 21, 12.30pm;

Waterstones Bradford, September 28, 12pm;

Bradford City FC shop, October 26, 12.30pm;

Huddersfield Golf Club, October 30, 7.30pm.

Living With Jacko – From Touchline to Lifeline is published by Great Northern Books priced £17.99. 
To order through the Yorkshire Post Bookshop call 01748 821122. 
Postage and packing costs £2.85.