SOCK IT TO 'EM, GEOFF!

I'M about to catch up with former Coventry bouncer Geoff Thompson - a man who's really going places.

The martial arts expert is going to be promoting his forthcoming film, Clubbed, which I'll see for the first time today, three months before it's due to be released in January, 2009.

Also due at the screening are director Neil Thompson and stars Colin Salmon (Die Another Day / AVP / Match Point), Maxine Peak (Veronica in Shameless) and Mel Raido (Derailed).

Clubbed was shot in Birmingham and it only seems like two minutes since I was reporting from the set of the film in Sparkbrook for a Mail feature.

Taglined 'Once you're in there's no way out', the film is the semi-autobiographical story of a lonely factory worker whose life is transformed when he becomes a nightclub doorman.

I first met Geoff years ago when he came to our office to promote a book.

Today, he's a BAFTA-winning film writer and it's his ambition to be regarded as 'one of the top five per cent of screenwriters within five years'.

I fully expect him to make it, judging by how he's turned his life around from sweeping factory floors and beginning his writing career by sitting in the toilets with a pen and pad.

Here are the details of just two of his books if you want to follow his astonishing example.

One of them is called The Elephant and the Twig - The Art of Positive Thinking: 14 Golden Rules to Success and Happiness.

ISBN 1 84024 115 2 (Summersdale - www.summersdale.com)

The other is a more abridged version of the above and other books and it's called Everything That Happens To Me Is Good.

ISBN: 1-84024-597-2 or ISBN 13: 978-1-84024-597-4 and it is also published by Summersdale, Publishers Ltd of 46 West Street, Chichester, West Sussex. PO19 1RP

The key line of Geoff's motivational work is one which so many people never grasp.

And that is, quite simply: 'The more you give, the more you get back'.

Read the books. And pass them on to your friends. They'll be glad you did.

Meanwhile, keep an eye on details of Clubbed at www.clubbedthemovie.com although it's really only flagging up a future website at the moment.

And don't miss the cracking trailer of a short film by Geoff called Romans 12:20. It's at www.romans1220.com