Hurricane Higgins Untitled Book

Tony's Francis' biography of Alex "Hurricane" Higgins is so much more than the definitive biography of a world champion snooker player because Higgins transcended sport in a way very few sportsmen ever have. The author 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 thirty witnesses to this extraordinary life and comes up with a series of adventures Don Quixote would have been proud to call his own. 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. McGuigan says: "He was my hero."Jimmy White says: "I loved him hated him and loved him again." Francis traces his crazy life from the time 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 Tony Francis's book is a must-read. At last you'll discover who Alex Higgins really was.Read More