Firstly I would like to touch briefly on some recent news. I was saddened to hear of Rio Ferdinand’s wife Rebecca Ellison losing her battle with cancer over the weekend. It is always sad to hear of anyone losing their lives but when they are so young and leave behind young children it is even more of a terrible tragedy. My thoughts are with Rio and his family at this sad time.
Another piece of sad news was the passing of Ruth Rendell, an inspiration for many and a house-hold name in literature who also wrote under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. Her books will leave a lasting legacy.
As always, where there is bad there is good and the news of the newest addition to the royal family was lovely to hear. William and Kate made very proud looking parents as they took their baby daughter home and I am sure George will adore his little sister.
Sports autobiographies: part one.
Now to the subject of this blog – sports autobiographies. I will be doing this in two parts as I have a lot I want to talk about, so this is part one. I haven’t read as many of them as I would like to – I’m working on that – but the ones I have read have all given me a great insight into the people behind them, some of who I love nothing better than watching on a Saturday afternoon.
Another piece of sad news was the passing of Ruth Rendell, an inspiration for many and a house-hold name in literature who also wrote under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. Her books will leave a lasting legacy.
As always, where there is bad there is good and the news of the newest addition to the royal family was lovely to hear. William and Kate made very proud looking parents as they took their baby daughter home and I am sure George will adore his little sister.
Sports autobiographies: part one.
Now to the subject of this blog – sports autobiographies. I will be doing this in two parts as I have a lot I want to talk about, so this is part one. I haven’t read as many of them as I would like to – I’m working on that – but the ones I have read have all given me a great insight into the people behind them, some of who I love nothing better than watching on a Saturday afternoon.
Jeff Stelling ‘Jelleyman’s Thrown A Wobbly: Saturday Afternoons in Front of the Telly’ is an absolute gem. Jeff is one of the previously mentioned people who I love to watch on Soccer Saturday. His enthusiasm is infectious and I find him hilarious. The knowledge he has about all things football quite frankly amazes me and in his book he talks about his ritual for getting all of his information (yep, he does all the research himself) for the upcoming matches. A die hard Hartlepool United fan, he is very open to his teams ups and downs (more downs that ups, unfortunately) and he is just an all-round funny guy who I could sit and watch for hours (in fact, the Saturday just gone I actually did sit and watch him for hours as he was on for an amazing 7 hours covering the last day of the season for the Championship). His friendship with the others on the Soccer Saturday panel is lovely and he talks about them all in his book with some rather comical tales. I would urge any football fan to read this book. Fab!
Sticking with the Soccer Saturday theme I have also read (and loved) ‘How Not to be a Professional Footballer’ By Paul Merson. I love Paul Merson, both as a footballer and as a person. He very often gets tongue-tied on Soccer Saturday and it leads to mistakes that have me in hysterics and his book is full of funny anecdotes too as well as a much more serious and often sad narrative about his demon’s he has had – and overcome – in the past. There is much more to Paul than an absolutely awesome footballer and in his book he comes across as a genuinely ‘normal’ and warm guy who has had some troubles but who can now look back on them and laugh. A great read for any football fan.
There are a lot of footballing books I am aiming to read as soon as I can and here are a few of them – ‘Mr Unbelievable’ by Chris Kamara. He is another one who I find ridiculously funny and who ‘works like a beaver’ – ah, see what I did there??? – and I need to read his book! ‘Always Managing: My Autobiography’ by Harry Redknapp is one on my ‘to read’ list (I do hope he talks about when he was Paul Merson’s manager and he told him he was ill but really went on holiday!). I admire him very much and I think he is a fantastic manager and was very sad to see him leave QPR as I think he had an awful lot to offer them. Personally I’d love to see him in another manager’s role before retiring; fingers crossed! ‘Farewell but not Goodbye: My Autobiography’ by Sir Bobby Robson. Sir Bobby was a great manager and I imagine his story of his life and career to be nothing short of magnificent.
Well, I think that’s it for this blog. I hope you have enjoyed reading it and I hope I have maybe given you some ideas for your next read. As always, I’d love to hear what your favourite sports autobiographies are and if you have any recommendations for me then please let me know. ‘Sports autobiographies part two’ will be here next Monday, so be sure to check back in.
Well, I think that’s it for this blog. I hope you have enjoyed reading it and I hope I have maybe given you some ideas for your next read. As always, I’d love to hear what your favourite sports autobiographies are and if you have any recommendations for me then please let me know. ‘Sports autobiographies part two’ will be here next Monday, so be sure to check back in.
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