Off Topic Autobiographies

  • Please bear with us on the new site integration and fixing any known bugs over the coming days. If you can not log in please try resetting your password and check your spam box. If you have tried these steps and are still struggling email [email protected] with your username/registered email address
  • Log in now to remove adverts - no adverts at all to registered members!
The Penguin

The Penguin

Well-Known Member
Feb 13, 2020
7,090
5,879
113
77
In reply to Watameire's post on the RIP thread, I like reading them. In recent months I've read 4 crackers- Al Pacino, Hamish McInnes (the Fox of Glencoe), Denis Law and Pat Nevin. All very interesting with fascinating insights into the workings of Hollywood, Mountain rescue, and football as it used to be played. Law was the only one of those who enlisted the help of a journo.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Watameire
Not really an autobiography as such, but Watford Forever is a fizzingly superb read.

I recently read Paul Merson's tome, Hooked, which is gritty and emotive. He deserves much praise for his searing honesty.

Paul McGrath and Gazza have also produced excellent reads.
 
  • Like
Reactions: The Penguin
Again not an autobiography but I recommend Norman Mailers “The Fight” - it’s about the Rumble in the Jungle - Foreman vs Ali
 
  • Like
Reactions: The Penguin
Must admit I have never been a great reader of autobiographies, or biographies for that matter.

I really should read more about the lives of a couple of the greatest Englishmen who ever lived (in my humble opinion);
Admiral Lord Nelson.
Winston Churchill.

For sporting biographies, I should like to learn more about Sam Bartram, Jimmy Seed, Sir Alf Ramsey and Pele.
Just for starters...
 
Don’t bother with the Pele autobiography. A very boring read - I’m a lovely guy who scored a lot of goals the end…
 
Watameire said:
Don’t bother with the Pele autobiography. A very boring read
Click to expand...

Badly written?
Difficult to believe he had a dull life story.

I should have included Muhammad Ali in my previous post.
 
You can write what you like in an autobiography. You can as pele did for instance not write anything that put himself in a bad light.
 
El Diego is superb. For me, the greatest ever player... after Mark Kinsella, of course.

As mentioned earlier, Nelse's diaries are cracking reads.

There was never going to be a grittiness (excuse the pun) about Curbs' tome.

Away from football, I greatly enjoyed George Cole's memoir, The World Was My Lobster. Anything Minder-related gets my seal of approval.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ElfsborgAddick
Larry Adler's autobiography was a good read. Left home at 15 to earn a living playing mouth organ, met some characters including Al Capone who told him off for not writing to his mother often enough, and not going to church often enough.
 
Politicians memoirs are boring as a rule. The exceptions are Tony Benn's and Alan Clark's diaries, both maverick Politicians.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back