Behind The White Ball

Description

One of snooker's most poluar heroes. Story of a life lived on the edge - of triumph and despair, illness, bankruptcy and success. After Hurricane Higgins crashed out of snooker's top league, Jimmmy White has been the `People's Champion' even though he never quite made the top World spot, pipped at the post in 1995 by Stephen Hendry, after missing one single black. Aged 16, White was the youngest player to win the English Amateur Championship. At 18, he won the World Amateur title. By 1984, he's a professional success, married but not at all settled. He's the kind of man who goes out for a packet of cigarettes and comes home two weeks later. Gambling, women, marathon binges with showbiz friends like Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones, have threatened the stability of his marriage. But somehow White has survived, to tell in candid detail, a most unusual, often outrageous story of a very sporting life.

From those early 'amateur' years when he learned to hustle under the tutelage of someone known as Dodgy Bob, Jimmy White has earned a reputation on the professional snooker circuit as 'The Whirlwind'. One of snooker's most popular heroes, he is the 'People's Champion'.

Mercurial, enigmatic, exciting -- Alex Higgins He may play a spellbinding game, full of invention and dash. He may even be the "best snooker player in the world" - but he is loved because he is naughty . . . and therein lies his abiding appeal -- Sue Mott * Sunday Telegraph * Jimmy's harum-scarum attitude to life has never altered, even though he is now a household name. One of the loveliest things about him is his naturalness. Stardom has come and touched him and left him exactly the way he was * Sunday Mirror * Jimmy's the ultimate player's player. He thrills the public . . . but the players get even more enjoyment out of watching him because he strikes the ball so well * Daily Express *