Unbreakable: Longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2023

Product Information

Unfortunately for Francisco Garcia, last year the BBC ran a documentary and a podcast series revisiting the case, and so there is little in We All Go into the Dark that feels truly new: reclaiming the stories of the victims; the 1996 exhumation of the suspect John McInnes for DNA testing (spoiler: it wasn’t him); the possibility that Bible John was actually the serial killer Peter Tobin (a theory here discredited by the detective who caught Tobin). Most interesting are Garcia’s interviews with those directly involved in the case over the decades – crime reporters, detectives, a pathologist – and the underlying social history of how bogeymen come to be. O’Sullivan has been described as “the most naturally gifted player ever”. He was potting balls from age seven and had scored his first century by 10, beating all in his wake before turning professional at 16. Ronnie O’Sullivan was in primary school when his father gave him his first proper snooker cue. It was a beauty: a Burwat Champion, made by the company that once supplied Queen Victoria with a snooker table. The cue was second-hand, but Ronnie Sr knew that it — like his son — was special. “The only way he managed to persuade the geezer who owned it to hand it over was giving him a car in return,” O’Sullivan writes. Perspective. I used to zoom in and it would be all catastrophic, now I zoom out and get a bit of perspective.

He said: “That was the deal breaker for me, like writing a book I just had to trust, he knew what he was doing. Ronnie is searingly honest, candidly funny, and thought provokingly brilliant in Unbreakable. I devoured it.' - NIHAL ARTHANAYAKE

Sponsored

Raised in Essex, O’Sullivan, 47, won his first UK Championship at the age of 17. He is regarded as the greatest snooker player of all time, having won seven world, seven Masters and seven UK titles. He is currently the world No 1. He published his first autobiography, Ronnie, in 2003; his latest, Unbreakable, has just been released. He lives in Essex with actor Laila Rouass and has three children. Frank Adamson, my first coach, for not spending more time with him in his later years. I feel bad about that. I got falsely accused of a kidnapping when I was 17 or 18. It was scary: they took me and my mate in separately, strip-searched me, took my car away for forensics, put me in a white paper suit. I was like: “What’s going on here?” He praised the Belgian, saying: “I thought Luca was unbelievable. You talk about talent – [in football] you look at someone who does things with the ball and you think: ‘How does he do that?’ And Luca is that player.

Framed around the many lessons Ronnie has learned from his extraordinary career, Unbreakable takes us beyond the success and record-breaking achievements to share the reality - and brutality - of making it to the very top, whatever your field. Ronnie is the first to say he doesn't have all the answers, but in sharing the experiences that have shaped him and mistakes that have made him, he hopes to help readers navigate their own personal challenges and obstacles, and in turn reach their maximum potential. In a career spanning over three decades, Ronnie O'Sullivan's journey to becoming the greatest snooker player of all time has been filled with extremes.

First night reviews

As a detective story, the account can be ponderous, comprising false starts and complaints about relatives reluctant to revisit the past. As a portrait of life in a changing Ukraine, though, the narrative sparkles with details of rural life and Soviet-inherited bureaucratic absurdity. The denouement will be no surprise to anyone familiar with the horrors of Stalinism. Belim describes her family as having “survived more tragedies than should be allotted by fate”, a characterisation just as applicable to Ukraine itself. The Rooster House is a moving account of a still much-misunderstood country, given extra poignancy by the disaster now unfolding. I’ve not mellowed, in that I’ve changed my personality, but I’ve learned to just not take myself too seriously. I’m much more philosophical.” The Tom he’s referring to is sports journalist and co-writer Tom Fordyce, and Ronnie admitted their love of running helped to build the bond before sitting down to write. Purchasing a book may earn the NS a commission from Bookshop.org, who support independent bookshops