It is frankly hard to imagine Stephen King, a writer from Maine, caring much about the fate of a fifth-tier Scottish football club. And yet that is exactly what has happened: Stephen King has helped Buckie Thistle, a Highland Football League club, survive a serious financial crisis following the departure of chairman Garry Farquhar, who stepped down on health grounds at the beginning of 2026. The end of Farquhar’s long tenure left the club on the brink of collapse, but a fundraising campaign has allowed Buckie Thistle to carry on. Interim chairman Daniel Farquhar said it was “a fantastic thing”, adding that the club had managed to get in touch with King and thank him for his gesture.
King did not choose the club at random: Buckie Thistle appears in one of his books, If It Bleeds, the 2020 collection of short stories. The exact amount donated by the writer has not been disclosed, but Farquhar said it was “a considerable amount of money”, enough to cover the players’ wages and other operating costs. Speaking to BBC Scotland, Farquhar also said that King had sent him an email in which he expressed hope for the future of the club, and wished that “other fans might feel inspired by my donation and make their own contribution”.
King had already helped Buckie Thistle in a very practical way when If It Bleeds was published: he sent the club two copies of the book and two photographs of himself wearing Buckie Thistle’s green-and-white shirt, so that the directors could auction them and raise some money. After that first contact, King was invited to attend a Buckie Thistle match, but the coronavirus pandemic made that impossible. Now, several years later, King – who, incidentally, has Scottish and Irish roots – has not forgotten his connection with a little-known Scottish football club. He has even sent the club money, helping, at least for now, to keep it from disappearing altogether.