Last week saw John McAvoy, author of Redemption: From Iron Bars to Ironman, appear as a guest speaker at the University of Derby, as part of the city’s ongoing Book Festival.

Hosted by Dean Jackson of HUUB Design, the event enabled John to bring to life the ultimate story of sporting salvation - how one of Britain’s most-wanted men before serving life in Belmarsh has now become one of the UK’s leading Ironman competitors, with plans to turn pro in 2017.

From the moment John took to the stage on the back of a Chopper, a sell-out audience of 200 were hooked on his every word. And now we can share the incredible feedback for the event, kindly passed on by Jenny at Derby Book Festival.

“It was hugely successful and obviously enjoyed by the audience," Jenny said. "We aim to get feedback from at least 10% the audience for every Festival event. We had 35 feedback forms returned (about 17%) and of these 32 rated the event as Excellent and 3 rated it as Good.”

Responses to the question ‘What did you enjoy about the event?’ included:

• Great inspirational story told by John
• Great speaker. Very motivational
• Wonderful honesty - fabulous!
• Proof that you can succeed if you’re driven enough
• An excellent presentation
• Great speaker and fab visuals to support it
• Unbelievable and very moving
• Inspiring - no other word for it
• Fascinating story told by a very charismatic man
• The talk was brilliant!

As Jenny said herself, “It doesn’t get much better than that!”

Click here for more information, or to read a sample from Redemption.