Author:Ronan O'Gara
Ronan O'Gara has been at the heart of Munster and Irish rugby for the past fifteen years. Now, as he comes to the end of a glittering playing career, it is time for him to reflect on those many successes and occasional failures with the straight-talking attitude that has become his trademark. Never one to shy away from the truth, the result is Ronan O'Gara: Unguarded.
Packed full of anecdotes and analysis of the teammates O'Gara has been proud to share the shirt with, and of the coaches he has played under - often in controversial circumstances - this is the definitive record of an era when Munster rose to triumph in Europe, and Ireland to win the Grand Slam, before crashing down to earth again. It is simply the must-have rugby book of the year.
Compelling... You have to admire the stones it takes to set out his stall. But then, it's entirely in keeping with how he played.
—— Irish Times, Best Sports Books of the YearAnyone interested in life coaching or self-awareness will be fascinated by O'Gara's revealing and unabashed self-analysis.
—— Irish Independent, Best Sports Books of the YearAdroitly constructed... his reflections on his recently concluded playing career contain enough cordite to remind one of the searing honesty and single-mindedness that drove this individual to perfection. Few escape his wrath.
—— Irish IndependentA rollicking read... he speaks with naked emotion, raw candour, and even that rare commodity in sportsmen, forthrightness.
—— Sunday IndependentRevealing... Unguarded is a reflection on a playing career that saw him earn the respect of the rugby world and win almost all the game has to offer. Off the field, the Corkman was known for his phlegmatic pronouncements and this book is marked out by similar straight-talking.
—— Sunday Business PostA book that bristles with O'Gara's penchant for calling it as he sees it.
—— RTE GuideAmply researched and gracefully told
—— New YorkerSullivan has found the transcendent in the house
—— Sports IllustratedBracingly eccentric…Sullivan is a remarkable writer
—— Jane Shilling , Sunday TelegraphIt's a good, funny, moving book... [Sullivan] is unfailingly good company, always curious, often very funny
—— Theo Tait , GuardianSullivan knows how to craft a paragraph and tell a story
—— Sunday Business PostReads as what it is: a great first book
—— Jon Day , New StatesmanThis morning Blood Horses showed up in the post. It’s Sullivan’s first book, a memoir about his late sportswriter father as well as a study of equine racing and breeding and obsessing over. We’re only 30 pages in but we’re convinced Sullivan wins it by a length and then some. He’s the best thing to come out of the south since 2 Chainz
—— Dazed and ConfusedA truly fascinating and brilliantly written memoir recounting Sullivan’s relationship with his writer father but also a detailed examination of horse racing, the love of his father’s life, as well as an entire treatise on the relationship between man and horse
—— Doug Johnstone , The Big IssueBlood Horses blends history, reportage and personal essay. The book is an excellent example of the mixed form that the critic Northrop Frye once called an “anatomy”. [Sullivan’s] enthusiasm rubs off
—— John Sunyer , Financial TimesBrilliant, sometimes maddeningly discursive memoir… Sullivan writes beautifully. Blood Horses makes better reading than the smoothly finished works of less witty and accomplished writers
—— Nick Rennison , Sunday TimesAll the elegance and craft [Sullivan] displayed in [Pulphead] are present once again
—— Tim Lewis , ObserverLuminous, hard-to-characterise book... By the sheer fizzing excellence of his writing [Sullivan] carries off the difficult task he set himself triumphantly
—— Simon Redfern , Independent on SundayIt’s a daring approach combining memoir and reportage and, beneath it all, the autobiographical theme of his attempt to understand his father, but it works magnificently
—— Christena Appleyard , Literary ReviewThe prose is relaxed, the choice of material telling; it is once more a delight to be in his company
—— Paul Laity , Prospect