Who Was Hurricane Higgins? PDF Download
Are you looking for read ebook online? Search for your book and save it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Download Who Was Hurricane Higgins? PDF full book. Access full book title Who Was Hurricane Higgins? by Tony Francis. Download full books in PDF and EPUB format.
Author: Tony Francis
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 1444708791
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 415
Get Book Here
Book Description
Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins transcended sport in a way very few sportsmen ever have. In this definitive biography, Tony Francis describes how Alex threw himself into life like a man throwing himself off a cliff. No safety net. No plan. No fear. No shame. Francis interviews more than sixty witnesses to this extraordinary life and comes up with a remarkable series of adventures to surprise even Alex's staunchest fans. We hear from his ex-wife Lynn who tolerated him for ten years, helped him recover from a suicide attempt, watched him trash the house, but still has a fondness for the father of her kids. Snooker champion Jimmy White, Alex's best friend, says: 'I loved him, I hated him, I loved him, I hated him!' The author investigates the Irish drink culture which undermined his family, colleagues and, of course Higgins himself. How did Higgins' fellow Irish sportsman and biggest fan, Barry McGuigan, escape the excesses which dragged Higgins and George Best into the gutter? Did drink account for Higgins' wild outbursts or was there something more to it? Why did his lost love describe the man who once head-butted a tournament official as 'the gentlest man I ever met'? For all his faults, Higgins was, for a time, the most loved sportsman in Britain. He remains a legend and the most outstanding, charismatic snooker player who ever walked into an arena. Francis traces his crazy life from the time when as a baby he was kept in a shoe box in his mother's top drawer, to the sheltered accommodation in Sandy Row, Belfast where died. If you want to know what kind of man could mesmerise and terrorise his way to the top; be acclaimed by millions one moment and literally thrown out of a pub the next; die in pitiful isolation yet be celebrated by thousands lining the streets in what amounted to a state funeral, then Who Was Hurricane Higgins? is a must-read.
Author: Tony Francis
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 1444708791
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 415
Get Book Here
Book Description
Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins transcended sport in a way very few sportsmen ever have. In this definitive biography, Tony Francis describes how Alex threw himself into life like a man throwing himself off a cliff. No safety net. No plan. No fear. No shame. Francis interviews more than sixty witnesses to this extraordinary life and comes up with a remarkable series of adventures to surprise even Alex's staunchest fans. We hear from his ex-wife Lynn who tolerated him for ten years, helped him recover from a suicide attempt, watched him trash the house, but still has a fondness for the father of her kids. Snooker champion Jimmy White, Alex's best friend, says: 'I loved him, I hated him, I loved him, I hated him!' The author investigates the Irish drink culture which undermined his family, colleagues and, of course Higgins himself. How did Higgins' fellow Irish sportsman and biggest fan, Barry McGuigan, escape the excesses which dragged Higgins and George Best into the gutter? Did drink account for Higgins' wild outbursts or was there something more to it? Why did his lost love describe the man who once head-butted a tournament official as 'the gentlest man I ever met'? For all his faults, Higgins was, for a time, the most loved sportsman in Britain. He remains a legend and the most outstanding, charismatic snooker player who ever walked into an arena. Francis traces his crazy life from the time when as a baby he was kept in a shoe box in his mother's top drawer, to the sheltered accommodation in Sandy Row, Belfast where died. If you want to know what kind of man could mesmerise and terrorise his way to the top; be acclaimed by millions one moment and literally thrown out of a pub the next; die in pitiful isolation yet be celebrated by thousands lining the streets in what amounted to a state funeral, then Who Was Hurricane Higgins? is a must-read.
Author: Bill Borrows
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781903809914
Category : Snooker players
Languages : en
Pages : 368
Get Book Here
Book Description
Born on a council estate in Belfast, Alex Higgins left school at 15. At 17 he won the Northern Ireland and All Ireland snooker championships, and turned professional when he was 20. In 1972, aged just 23, he became the youngest person ever to win the World Championship. He repeated this achievement in an emotional final 10 years later, in the process becoming the biggest box-office draw the game has ever known. Alex Higgins was a showman, gambler, comedian, bully, charmer and alcoholic. His antics - and ferocious temper - were legendary yet he was loved by millions. Now, dying of cancer, he has spent everything he has and divided his time between Manchester and Belfast, where he survives by playing u10 snooker matches in pubs. Bill Burrows has had unprecedented access to Higgins and reconstructs vividly the terrifying roller-coaster ride that is his life. Outrageous, gripping and ultimately, emotionally wrenching, this is the definitive account of one of the most charasmatic and self-destructive figures ever to appear in British sport."
Author: John Hennessey
Publisher: Mainstream
ISBN: 9781840184402
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Get Book Here
Book Description
When Alex Higgins' first manager, John McLaughlin, bestowed the nickname 'Hurricane Higgins' on the young, feisty snooker player he had no idea just how apt it was to prove over the next thirty years. Eye of the Hurricane details a sad but uplifting story of a man who had everything to play for but now has to play hard for anything he can get. It describes Higgins, sitting fitfully on snooker's sidelines, still has a story to tell, another controversy to spark. Author John Hennessey promises a 'wart and all' account of Alex Higgin's life and that is precisely what he delivers in this thoroughly absorbing book. . . well-told but cautionary tale of how narr ow the line is between genius and insanity 'This first proper account of Higgin's life is all the more clear-eyed for being written without his co-operation.
Author: Jason Francis
Publisher: John Blake
ISBN: 9781786069849
Category : Exhibition games
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Get Book Here
Book Description
Jason Francis is the man who created the Snooker Legends Tour and who's been at Ronnie O'Sullivan's side on tour for the past 6 years. This is his story, sharing tales on the road with "the Rocket" and some of the game's greatest ever snooker legends like Jimmy White and Stephen Hendry. From his initial idea, to meeting and staging the last ever snooker show with Alex "Hurricane" Higgins to taking over the World Seniors Tour, Jason reveals what he learnt about the players themselves and also the sport as it developed over the years under the guidance of Barry Hearn. Through his tour, Jason was at the center of it all, able to bring the former players together again to renew old rivalries and create new memories. He struggled against those in the game who didn't want him to succeed but never gave up. This is his story, a snooker fan's story.
Author: John Virgo
Publisher: John Blake
ISBN: 9781786069757
Category : Autobiographies
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Get Book Here
Book Description
In this revelatory memoir, snooker player John Virgo turns the spotlight on himself, sharing secrets from his forty years at the top of one of the world's most popular sports. Famous for his hilarious impersonations of snooker's biggest stars, JV is a household name thanks to his razor-sharp BBC Snooker commentary and the much-loved quiz show Big Break. A fascinating insight into British sporting life, taking readers from John's childhood in Salford, through smoky snooker dens, to tournaments and championships all over the world, as he relives travelling on Concorde, rubbing shoulders with royalty and much more. Admiringly nicknamed 'Mr Perfection', John tells how he overcame adversity to become UK champion, yet also reveals how gambling wrecked his dreams of becoming World Champion, and almost bankrupted him. An affectionate reminder of a time when Britain - and sport - took themselves a little less seriously. With a foreword by snooker legend Jimmy White.
Author: Jimmy White
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1448108993
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 318
Get Book Here
Book Description
After Hurricane Higgins crashed out of snooker's top league, Jimmmy White has been the `People's Champion' even though he never quite made the top World spot, pipped at the post in 1995 by Stephen Hendry, after missing one single black. Aged 16, White was the youngest player to win the English Amateur Championship. At 18, he won the World Amateur title. By 1984, he's a professional success, married but not at all settled. He's the kind of man who goes out for a packet of cigarettes and comes home two weeks later. Gambling, women, marathon binges with showbiz friends like Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones, have threatened the stability of his marriage. But somehow White has survived, to tell in candid detail, a most unusual, often outrageous story of a very sporting life.
Author: Aubrey Malone
Publisher: eBook Partnership
ISBN: 1909178527
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Get Book Here
Book Description
Jimmy 'Whirlwind' White is Britain's best-loved snooker player. A one-time ragamuffin straight out of the pages of Charles Dickens, he has enthralled audiences worldwide for three decades with his electrifying brilliance, winning ten world-ranking events - although, heartbreakingly, he has lost six Crucible World Championship finals. In this in-depth, warts-and-all biography, die-hard fan Aubrey Malone examines White's background, his illiteracy, drinking and tempestuous relationship with his wife Maureen, set against his incredible rise to the top in snooker's halcyon days of the 1980s. There are tales of Jimmy using a walking stick to make a century break at his local snooker hall, his battles with the twin demons of drink and the yips, and how he nearly lost the world trophy, despite never having won it! But in the end it is White's obsession with winning, and his astonishing ability on the baize, often against all the odds, that shines through.
Author: Teddy Jamieson
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1409028895
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 338
Get Book Here
Book Description
From the late 1960s, Northern Ireland has been mired in violence. Yet it has had seen more than its fair share of sporting heroes - from footballer George Best, through snooker champion Alex Higgins, to boxer Barry McGuigan. Life was tough for these working-class lads, but they could shine on the football field or find refuge at the town boxing club. For other kids, like the young Teddy Jamieson, a knockabout in the back-lanes was as good as it got, but at least they had their heroes. Watching McGuigan on telly, Teddy could feel proud to be Northern Irish. But sport - like everything else in Northern Ireland - could quickly turn nasty when politics were involved. This extraordinary journey through sport and the Troubles has it all: from Olympic gold-medals to Gaelic football; from death threats to reconciliations. Then there is Teddy's own story, as we learn how the age-old playground question 'Whose side are you on?' doesn't always have an easy answer.
Author: Karen Harper
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780739470978
Category : Divorced parents
Languages : en
Pages : 544
Get Book Here
Book Description
The "New York Times" bestselling author of "The Falls" takes readers into the eye of a storm in southwest Florida, where two parents fight to rescue their children from the overwhelming menace of a hurricane.
Author: Melvin Berger
Publisher: Turtleback Books
ISBN: 9780606195553
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Get Book Here
Book Description
Provides answers to a variety of questions about tornadoes and hurricanes, including Where do most tornadoes strike, and How long do hurricanes last?
