Once you've read this account of one man's love affair with cricket, you'll never want to read another ghosted autobiography by a Pietersen or a Vaughan again - incompetence and failure is far more fun

An instant classic

The childhood recollections, suffused with warmth and spangled with pain and humour, are the book's unique selling point. Lovely stuff

Simmo may be a shockingly average amateur cricketer, but when it comes to self- deprecating wit and telling a good anecdote, he's as sprightly as Garry Sobers in his prime ... anecdotes and quirky characters hurtle down at us like yorkers bowled by a fast bowler that I'm not quite knowledgeable enough to name ... an entertaining read indeed

Michael writes about disaster, humiliation, rejection and ridicule - the hilarious truth

Brilliantly witty

It is wonderfully written - full of wit, gags, self-deprecating asides and a pure, unfettered understanding of a man's limitations - and it talks to all of us. You should buy it. You really should go out straight away and pick up a copy. It'll make you feel so much better

At last the work of genius that will finally bring the long-suffering cricket addict a measure of understanding in the world. A wonderful and very funny book

You read the wonderful Michael Simkins with a mixture of horror and delight

One of Britain's funniest writers

Extremely funny - whether or not you know your bails from your balls

One of the funniest sporting memoirs ever

Almost painfully funny

An all-too honest account of a playing career that just got better and better, despite threatening to go off the rails.

An extraordinary book.

Harrowing and brutally honest...a gripping story.

Brutally honest.

Less a football autobiography, more repentant confessional.

stunning