Author:Shane Curran
Cake: the utterly distinctive memoirs of Shane Curran.
In an age when sportsmen have perfected the art of saying nothing and suppressing any trace of personality, Shane 'Cake' Curran is a beacon of light: passionate, outspoken, utterly himself. As a rare two-code goalkeeper - for Roscommon in Gaelic football and for Athlone Town in soccer - he made his own rules, soloing mesmerisingly out of goal, inventing a new style of kicking tee, and famously poaching a penalty kick a teammate had lined up in the 1989 Connacht minor final. Brave, honest and hilarious, Cake tells the story of an Irish sportsman who has lived the dream in his own utterly distinctive way.
'He was gangbusters' Chris O'Dowd
'Richly entertaining' Irish Times
'A natural storyteller' Sunday Times
Richly entertaining
—— Irish TimesOne of the best GAA autobiographies of the last five years
—— Irish ExaminerA natural storyteller ... the stories are raw and largely uncut, including the time he produced a bag of his own blood in the dressing room as part of a pre-match speech
—— Sunday TimesIt's hilarious, honest and brave, but best of all it's a damned good book.
—— hoganstand.comOn the pitch and off it, many would say that the man from Castlerea is a unique prospect. As for the rest? Let them eat Cake.
—— RTE GuideA joy to read both for the memories and a vision of what sport could be minus the commercial overdrive and corrupt governance
—— Mark Perryman , Huffington Post UKThis is a worthy successor to Ned Boulting's other books; entertaining, informative, and often funny
—— Richard Peploe , RoadDispatches from the 101st Tour de France, 101 Damnations is a chance to relive the 2014 race, stage for stage, fall after fall, tantrum by tantrum; just the good bits mind, without all the aerial shots of castles
—— Cycling WeeklyExamines the evolution of modern tennis, the role of beauty in sport and the psychology of fandom
—— NationalIt’s a dry comic look at devotion to sport
—— Forever SportsThis is tennis’s answer to Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch… The book is particularly strong on Federer’s place in tennis history
—— Simon Kuper , Financial TimesVery enjoyable biography-cum-autobiography...this is a good book. Skidelsky has a feel for words, for the length of sentences and for tennis. The “sporty one” has finally proved himself
—— Simon Kuper , New StatesmanThought-provoking and beautifully written, Federer and Me is a frank, funny and touching account of one fan’s life
—— Miss DinkyHooked: from opening lob to final shot
—— Kevin Mitchell , ObserverSkidelsky explores the evolution of modern tennis, the role of beauty in sport and the psychology of fandom, weaving his own past into the story
—— GransnetDickinson is tender to the memory of the Essex lad who, for a breathtaking instant, was glorious
—— Ain Finlayson and Kate Saunders , Saga MagazineMatt's work is the most impressive West Ham book of the year, a genuine and sincere attempt to get to the root of the man. It is an excellent, thought-provoking book
—— Knees Up Mother BrownA compelling and complete account
—— SportIn The Man in Full, acclaimed football writer Matt Dickinson traces the journey of this Essex boy, peeling away the layers of legend and looking at Moore’s life from all sides – in triumph, in failure, in full
—— Bert Wright , NudgeOutstanding... this excellent biography comes very close to describing the real Bobby Moore
—— PostAn exquisitely written study of light in the works of various poets and painters.
—— Daily TelegraphA wonderful literary meditation… This book is suffused with vivid personal memory and precise, delicate observation of Nature. Wroe’s feeling for landscape is both sensitive and acute; her style is lyrical and precise.
—— Hugo Davenport , Resurgence and EcologistA book for winter.
—— Honor Clerk , Spectator, Books of the YearPeople of faith talk a great deal about light, and we would do well to learn more about it from Wroe’s quick-eyed love of it.
—— Mark Oakley , Church TimesWroe passes her elusive subject, light itself, through the prism of her dazzlingly well-read mind, and the resulting rainbows fairly dance across the page… An utterly original book that will leave you, in every sense of the word, enlightened.
—— Claire Lowdon , Sunday Times, Book of the YearAnn Wroe’s Six Facets of Light is a fascinating and original meditation [on light]. Six Facets of Light is an exquisite collage of relations, a prose poem to “what escaped” absolutely everyone – and to how madly, brilliantly, they tried to “be in step”.
—— Joanna Kavenna , Times Literary Supplement