The hilarious tale of one podgy boy’s dreams on the outside edge of a cricketing life from 'one of Britain's funniest writers' (
Daily Mail)
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.
Author Biography
Michael Simkins was born in 1957 and spent his childhood in a sweetshop in Brighton. In 1966 he saw his first cricket match on the TV, and from that moment he was hooked.
When he hasn't been playing, watching or dreaming about cricket, Michael has spent his time acting. He has appeared in countless plays and musicals in the west end, most recently as Billy Flynn in
Chicago, and also features regularly on TV and the silver screen, usually playing unsuspecting husbands, police sergeants or experts. He lives with his wife, the actress Julia Deakin, in north-west London, and still plays cricket to a worryingly low standard all over the Southern Counties.
Reviews
Once you’ve read this account of one man’s love affair with cricket, you’ll never want to read another ghosted autobiography by a Pietersen or a Vaughan again – incompetence and failure is far more fun,An instant classic,The childhood recollections, suffused with warmth and spangled with pain and humour, are the book's unique selling point. Lovely stuff,Simmo may be a shockingly average amateur cricketer, but when it comes to self- deprecating wit and telling a good anecdote, he's as sprightly as Garry Sobers in his prime ... anecdotes and quirky characters hurtle down at us like yorkers bowled by a fast bowler that I'm not quite knowledgeable enough to name ... an entertaining read indeed,Michael writes about disaster, humiliation, rejection and ridicule - the hilarious truth,Brilliantly witty,It is wonderfully written - full of wit, gags, self-deprecating asides and a pure, unfettered understanding of a man's limitations - and it talks to all of us. You should buy it. You really should go out straight away and pick up a copy. It'll make you feel so much better,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,You read the wonderful Michael Simkins with a mixture of horror and delight,One of Britain’s funniest writers,Extremely funny - whether or not you know your bails from your balls,One of the funniest sporting memoirs ever
