Product Description

A fat boy with a passion for sweets and a loathing for games, the young Michael Simkins finds in cricket a sport where size doesn't necessarily matter and a full-blown obsession is born. Now in middle-age, he still harbours the somewhat deluded belief that the England middle-order might usefully benefit from his hard-earned skills. From impromptu Test series played with his dad in the family sweetshop through to his years running a team of dysfunctional inadequates, "Fatty Batter" tells the hilarious story of one man's life lived through cricket.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14871 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Stephen Fry
"an instant classic"

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

Sir Tim Rice
"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"

Customer Reviews

Proof that cricket really can be enjoyable...
I am not a cricketer - and anyone who has seen my batting stance will happily verify that fact - so imagine my trepidation when I received this book as a gift. I was dreading boring reminisences about life on the boundary but curiously it turns out to be a autobiography-cum-cricket book that I think has real appeal for the non-cricketers amongst us too. Much of the book is taken up with humorously evocative descriptions of childhood; really well done I thought. The later parts of the book describe the trials and tribulations of the author's curious cricket team 'The Harry Baldwins' but they are populated with enough characters and incident to provide plenty of laughs. You really don't need to have an intimate knowledge of your googlies to enjoy this book as it would appeal to bat wielders and the bat-phobic alike. Touching and rib-tickling in turn...

Simply the best book I've read for years.
I bought this book as a holiday gift for my cricket-loving, non-reading husband. When it arrived I flicked through the pages, started reading a passing paragraph and was hooked. Michael Simkins writes with wit, style and ease. He evokes with humour and considerable accuracy the frustrations and angst of the corpulent child becoming the tireless team organiser and devoted cricket fan. It's a joy to read for all cricket enthusiasts and their long-suffering partners.

How Simkins Saved My Week
A week's holiday in Normandy this May would have been utterly ruined by the appalling weather, were it not for this 300-page gem by Mr. Simkins, which transported me to some sunsoaked boundary of my own rememberings, where I seemed to bask all week in happy contemplation of another brilliant innings by this writer. He knows all the shots, and plays them off the sweet spot every time. Deeply touching but never mawkish; stylish, witty and just rude enough to make you shift a little in your deckchair, he is Alan Bennett in grass-stained flannels. His book about cricket is about so much more than just cricket. I think it's probably about being British. If there's any justice, it'll be an all-time classic, as synonymous with summertime as the first glass of Pimms.