Product Description

As a teenager in Nottingham, Tom Cox was possessed. Despite the best endeavours of his frankly rather groovy parents, nascent fashion sense and regular exposure to credible music from an early age, he was inexorably drawn into the bizarre, esoteric world that is golf, with its male-bonding rituals and strange trousers. And thus a strange hybrid was born - from 1988 to 1995, Tom was Midlands golf's answer to Iggy Pop. Assisted by his fellow junior members at the local club, he cut a swathe through the golfing establishment, putting dead animals in his fellow golfers' shoes, setting fire to the club professional's shop, bringing Colin Montgomerie close to tears and repeatedly wearing the wrong colour of socks. On the golf course he felt simultaneously at home and somehow alienated. But Tom also wanted to be (and became) the best, taking five years out of normal adolescent existence to live, breathe, walk and talk nothing but the sport he loved. "Nice Jumper" is the story of how Tom tried to fit in, failed, got down to a handicap of two, tried to fit in again, got suspended from the club, got corrupted by rock and roll, then attempted to corrupt golf itself. It's a book about one teenager's obsessive attempts to attain sporting nirvana despite the slings and arrows of outrageous fashion.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #86769 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Tom Cox's parents are worried. With good reason. At an age when most boys are doing their best to offend their elders with loud music and outrageous fashion, Tom is practising his golf swing. According to Nice Jumper Tom's universe is defined by the limits of the Cripsley Edge Golf Club, his ambitions dictated by the quest for golfing stardom. But his parents-who'd rather their son would attend protest marches than walk round in Pringle jumpers-needn't worry. Unbeknown to them, Tom is the East Midlands' enfant terrible of golf. A rebel genius, whose socks are never quite the right shade to satisfy the Captain, and whose triumphs on the fairway are matched by the wickedness of his deeds in the back room of the Golf Shop. Freak fires, dead rodents in shoes and random outbreaks of nudity are Tom's trademarks. But how long can Tom spread anarchy in this staid world before he is corrupted himself? Can he achieve the perfect shot, before his heart is claimed by more conventional pursuits, like girls and rock and roll?

This is a hugely funny, real-life tale of teenage obsession, made all the more unique for being about a subject few people can discuss without yawning. If you share even a tenth of Tom's passion for golf, you will want to preserve this book in a glass case. Unfortunately if you don't, you might come to the conclusion--rather like Tom himself--that there are better things you could be doing with your life. --Matthew Baylis

William Boyd
'Does for golf what 'Fever Pitch' did for football...Funny, clever and all-too-horribly true'

Martin Fletcher in the Independent, 7.6.02
' . . .the Fever Putt of golf, an engaging tale of sporting adolescent fumbling for identity . . . consistently entertaining and often extremely funny.'

Customer Reviews

Golf is only a small part of this book.
Make no mistake, this book is not entirly about golf. If you struggle to know the difference between a sand wedge and a putter, do not be disuaded; there is far more to this book than than the dream of being Tiger Woods.
Set in the days before the American golfing progidy had burst onto scene, Tom cox and his group of sporting sidekicks dreamed of accumplishing what Mr Woods went on to acheive, with no role models of a similar age to aspire to being, the boys of Cripsley Edge juniour golf team tried despratly to become teenage marvels in a retired couples dominated game.
Set between 1988 and 1993, Nice Jumper deals with the essential teenage years, 13-18, where messing around with you're mates is more important than school, setting fire to the golf pro's shop is something done more out of boredom than malevolence and girls were justing starting to become interesting.
Nice Jumper is a rare book that conveys developing manhood while reveling in boyishness. Where games such as Ching! are an example of a strange ritualistic oneupmanship that all young people experience with their peers.
It is a joy to find in writing that most youths get up to mischeif, but the seed from which this grew was not destructive, but boyant and rather innocent. The lads in Nice Jumper could well be a young school rugby team or saturday morning football squad, the sport is irrelavant, as is the fact that it is based around sport at all.
This is a book about reveling in being young. It makes no excuses for it's cheekyness, and asks no forgiveness for it's honesty.
If you've ever found putting strange items in peoples bags (or lockers or shoes)belly-achingly funny, then I would recomend his book to you very highly.

At last a chronicle of a teenage outdoor type
Not being particularly interested in golf didn't matter a bit for me as I found Nice Jumper said a lot of the things that I feel are true about being a teenager and not entirely fitting in with your mates. For me it was BMX bikes but I think anyone with memories of being obsessed about something and only later realising you may well have looked a bit of an idiot will find comfort in this book. It made me cringe in recognition and laugh out loud at the same time.

Industrial Sabotage in sock factories by ramblers
As soon as I picked up this book from the fathers day gift idea section, I said "don't judge a quilt by it's cover". It didn't have any relevance, but I shouted it anyway.

Since reading this book, I have had social problems. Laughing out loud whilst reading about teenage high Jinx is fine in private, it doesn't work so well in pubs, doctors waiting rooms, or on the 7.30 am train from Nottingham to Kings Cross. (Apologies fellow passengers, the FT doesn't do it for me.) This book is the funniest amount of text bound together in a fine cover I have read in a long time. Any one who has suffered the frustration of trying to belong, to be accepted, then realising that you'd rather boils your ears in a vat of hot toads and wine, this is for you. If you not a fan of golf or Nottingham, and I imagine there are a few of you out there of that denomination, do not be put off. The story could be set almost anywhere (apart from the Grand Canyon perhaps), and could be about anyone growing up, trying to gain acceptance.

if you were the child who turned up for your chosen sport with a mish mash of equipment, on your own, this is for you. If you were the teenager who decided it was okay to hide things in peoples bags, or design alternative near death games, this is for you.

it's like a road movie. Tom's journey is one we've all taken a part in. We have been hitch hikers, getting a croggy with Tom, but our stop is inevitabley before the end of the book. What Tom does to golf in this book is someone beyond belief, yet you will not be able to help but smile.

The journey Tom and his friends take may not always be pleasent, but it is a learning curve that makes a fantastic tale.

I advise anyone who enjoys the complexity of the written word, woven together into a nice jumper, to buy this book.