The strange case of John Westwood... or Dr Jekyll and Mr Portsmouth

Most days he is just John Anthony Westwood, a mild-mannered antiquarian book dealer with a royal warrant for picture framing in a peaceful national park market town.



Come this weekend, however, he will transform himself into John Anthony Portsmouth

Football Club Westwood, better known as Pompey John, tattooed talisman of the terraces — from which he is occasionally evicted — the man who put fan into football fanatic.



Instead of browsing sales and house clearances to find priceless first editions to add to the shelves in his shop in Petersfield, Hampshire, he will don his bright blue wig and stovepipe hat, pull on his ex-chef ’s chequered trousers and bare his tattooed torso to the elements for the sake of his team, as relegated Pompey play underdog to newly-crowned champions Chelsea in tomorrow’s FA Cup final.



The only links between the books he leaves behind will be that Charles Dickens lived in the city and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once played in goal for Portsmouth Association Football Club, an amateur side, under the pseudonym AC Smith.



Don't judge a book... John Westwood in the tranquil surrounds of his Petersfield shop

Meanwhile, Westwood’s only regret — although probably not for the fans next to him in the stands — is that the Wembley authorities have banned him from bringing his bell or trumpet or drum.



‘I’ve been told I have to have a licence,’ says Westwood, 47. ‘It’s all about health and safety.



‘To be honest there is more atmosphere in my pub these days than at most football

grounds.’



His obsession with the south coast club began when he was 13 and his father Frank took him to his first game: Portsmouth versus Brighton, which Pompey won 1-0.



‘It was a 32,000 crowd and the place was just rocking. Unbelievable,’ he says.



‘I thought there and then that I was going to be a Pompey fan until the day I died.



‘It has become my passion, my life. It’s Jekyll and Hyde, if you like. I leave the books behind me when I step out of the shop. No more minding my p’s and q’s and having to be polite to customers and the customer always being right. At the weekends I just become myself.’



It has not been without its sacrifices and pitfalls. Westwood’s marriage to wife Linda collapsed because of his obsession with Portsmouth.



He said: ‘I have only been married once and that was enough. Linda thought I would

change but if you marry me you marry Portsmouth. It’s sad really but you only get one life.’



The couple, who remain friends and meet up for family occasions, have two children, Marcus, 19, and Yasmin, 15. ‘They think I’m nuts but they understand my passion,’ he says.



Cover story: Westwood's up for the fight as Pompey John in the away end at Craven Cottage

Westwood has also had his fair share of troubles on the road with his team when the heady mixture of beer and adrenaline saw him ejected from some grounds and banned from others.



‘I have been ejected from a few grounds in the Premier League especially because I stand out from the crowd and I make a bit of noise.’ he says. ‘Football is a bit politically correct these days and they don’t like people who show passion.’



In many ways, he says, it is good that Portsmouth will start next season in the Championship because he reckons the Barclays Premier League is merely a vehicle for four or five clubs to dominate.



He said: ‘When we were winning in the Premier League it took the gloss off it. It’s more fun to be the underdogs and two fingers to the rest of them. There will always be a Pompey — we are not worried about winning or losing.’



On Saturday, a friend will drive Westwood and his friends to Wembley in the Petersfield Book Shop minibus. They are leaving at 9am to give plenty of time ‘for a few beers and some chat with the Chelsea fans’.



‘Our second Cup final in two years,’ he says. ‘Unbelievable.’ ‘We never thought we would see one and now we’re in another.’



Before he sets off, his mother Ann will issue her usual warning: ‘You take care now.’



Westwood said: ‘She said that in the shop once as I was going out and this titled Lady who was browsing the books said, without looking up, “Oh no, don’t do that. We like reading about you in the papers”.’