My Sporting Life, Michael Parkinson
My Sporting Life, Michael Parkinson
List: $27.99 | Sale: $19.59
Club: $13.99

My Sporting Life
Memories, moments and declarations

Author: Michael Parkinson

Narrator: Simon Slater

Unabridged: 7 hr 2 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/03/2022


Synopsis

Michael Parkinson recalls his sporting life in this amusing memoir full of personality, anecdotes and insight.

'Like my father before me, I believe that both the playing and watching of sport can teach us important lessons about ourselves by providing practical instruction in co-operation, tests of resolve and temper'

For Michael Parkinson it was never really in doubt that he would spend his life in sport. His father, a fearsome fast bowler himself, indoctrinated young Michael from an early age into the Yorkshire cricket tradition and supporting Barnsley FC. All he ever wanted was to play cricket for Yorkshire and England.

He rose through the ranks of Barnsley cricket along with his friends Dickie Bird and Geoffrey Boycott. But while they went on to find fame on the field, he spent the next few decades watching, writing and talking about sport.

My Sporting Life is Sir Michael's love letter to sport, to the heroes and legends of his Yorkshire youth, to the characters of the international games he watched and wrote about, and to the very idea of sport itself. With warm humorous anecdotes about many icons of sport, from Shane Warne to George Best and Muhammad Ali to Fred Trueman, Sir Michael Parkinson reflects on his life writing about his one great passion.

(P) 2022 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

About Michael Parkinson

Born in Yorkshire, Michael Parkinson left school at sixteen with the ambition to play cricket for Yorkshire and England and to write about cricket for the Manchester Guardian. Although he didn't manage to fulfil the first half of his ambition, he has since become one of the most successful journalists of his generation. He wrote a sports column for The Sunday Times for fifteen years and has also written for the Telegraph. He is a legendary TV and radio presenter - his long-running chat show Parkinson was hugely popular for many years.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Dennis

Michael Parkinson has a star quality and as such a following of devoted fans and this book is aimed at that market. I might add that I am probably a member of that fan club as Parkinson is a superb TV interviewer and an excellent journalist. This book is mainly made of past articles that he wrote fo......more

Goodreads review by Andy

This absolutely brilliant book, proves once again that the late, great Michael Parkinson was an excellent and insightful writer on sport, what it means and the unbridled joy it brings to millions. Parky’s descriptions in this book of sporting memories of yesteryear and some more modern and terrific......more

A journalist who I respect enormously for his outlook on life and connection with sports. The book had a strong focus on Yorkshire cricket as was his passion, but hard to relate to and did not pique my interest. Some great anecdotes and stories perspective littered throughout but a hard read due the......more

Goodreads review by Matthew

Parky has always been an ultra reliable read Here he pokes gentle fun at fellow Tyke legends, Boycott and Bird. In amongst the laughs, however, is a genuine fear that his (and my) sort of ccricket is in danger in an age of dwindling support from state schools, the marginalisation of the 3 day game,......more

Goodreads review by Stephen

Funny and sage......more


Quotes

PRAISE FOR MICHAEL PARKISON:

A lovely kind of nostalgia, which colourises the black and white of yesteryear The Oldie Review

He writes about them all with wonderful precision and a powerful evocation Radio Times

A quietly impressive book, which does something most celebrity autobiographies shy away from: it seeks the truth and, more often than not, finds it Mail, on Like Father, Like Son

A joyous, breezy read . . . It is also beautifully written Daily Telegraph on Parky

Funny and self-deprecating and just as laid-back as he is on camera Independent on Parky

Engrossing and entertaining Irish Time on Parky