Product Description

How did a humble insurance clerk from Guildford with few ambitions beyond being able to afford a round of drinks end up roving the world covering some of the biggest sports stories of the past 25 years? From the Seoul Olympics to a freezing, rain-lashed hotel rooftop in Azerbaijan, A Great Face For Radio is John Anderson's hilarious memoir of his experiences in more than forty countries as the sports correspondent at Independent Radio News and a commentator for Sky Sports. While reporting from Olympics, World Cups and world title fights, he's been in the thick of several football riots, was almost arrested during the 1996 Atlanta bombing, had to flee bottle-wielding fans at a rap gig and survived gun fire during a high speed car chase to a Johannesburg brothel. He's rubbed shoulders with a host of A-list sports stars including Pele, Mike Tyson, Dame Kelly Holmes and Carl Lewis, and is one of very few people who have interviewed David Beckham in a French gents toilet. Among the superstar showbiz celebrities he's encountered on his travels are Jack Nicholson, Bo Derek and Stevie Wonder. Although not simultaneously. With a lovingly-written stream of laugh-out-loud anecdotes, fascinating characters and witty observations, A Great Face For Radio will delight sports fans and non-sports fans alike.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12509 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Review
Brilliant. The funniest book I've read all year - apart from mine that is ... ! --Alan Brazil

...a stream of incredible stories of [Anderson's] exploits, and of the interviews he has conducted, often in the strangest of circumstances. Many of these are hilarious, and this is one of the funniest, insightful books to be published this year, with every page full of (mostly famous) names of those sportsmen, adminstrators and showbiz legends he met along the way. --Programme Monthly

Great Face for Radio is a particularly well-written account of a career spent almost exclusively immersed in sport (Anderson does occasionally appear as a royal funeral correspondent, though at the Queen Mother's funeral, he can t help but think, I bet Nicholas Witchell or Jennie Bond couldn t do West Brom against Hull. ). Such lines and musings pepper this irreverent, hilariously funny book. The book is packed with enough one-liners for Anderson to consider making them into a stand-up routine. From the then Watford manager Graham Taylor to Paul Scholes, interviewed in a gents toilet with David Beckham acting as a chaperone, Anderson s sense of timing ensures the reader is frequently laughing out loud from beginning to end of a quite marvellous tale. --Sports Book Of The Month

About the Author
John Anderson is a freelance sports commentator, reporter and writer with over 25 years experience in broadcasting. As sports correspondent for Independent Radio News, his assignments included five Olympics, two World Cups and nearly 150 England internationals. He currently commentates on many sports for Sky Sports including Premier League and Championship football and tennis.

Customer Reviews

Hilarious!
The author, who surely had one of the best jobs in the world, manages to entertain (hugely) and inform in this cracking little page-turner. I found myself laughing out loud on many occasions, but I was also intrigued by the many tales about life on the road covering truly historical events. I think John Anderson has the sort of sense of humour that will appeal to fans of humorous travel-writers like Bill Bryson or Tim Moore. He doesn't try to get a laugh out of every paragraph like some authors, which makes it all the more amusing when he slips in a great anecdote under the radar. This should be compulsive reading for anyone interested in a career in journalism, and anyone interested in having a good laugh and enjoying themselves thoroughly. I loved it.

Well worth a read
One of those books that can stick a smile on your face at the end of a long day, makes good train/tube reading and should appeal to a wide audience because of the sport/travelogue/music blend. Anderson has a fabulous writing style that makes "A Great Face for Radio" accessible to those inside, and outside of journalism. The author has an immense musical knowledge - with some references flying way over my head, I must admit - but his sporting experiences are fascinating and in many instances, refreshingly honest as well. It's quite hard to write this kind of book without descending into a long list of name-dropping but Anderson manages to strike a very readable balance. Enjoyed it.

A great book - funny, clever and a brilliant read
A Great Face for Radio: The Adventures of a Sports Commentator

This book is thoroughly enjoyable. John Anderson's insightful, sometimes biting observations of travelling the world covering some of the largest sporting events on the planet are humorous as well as informative. Never patronising you don't need to know that much about the world of sport, you just need an appreciation of good writing that provides wit, a wry smile and laugh out loud moments throughout the book.

As he hurtles round the world covering Olympics, World Cup's and England Football matches it is the author's interviews with many a celebrity (some in very unusual places), the pitting of his wits against haphazard bureaucracy, challenging places and difficult circumstances that give you a sense of the fun as well as the hard work it must have taken to deliver top stories for the "folks back home".

It's a book for the sports fan and non-sports fan alike. I didn't put it down and it made me laugh out loud on the bus, which is something I haven't done with a book for ages.