Malcolm Folley
Autor de Senna Versus Prost: The Story of the Most Deadly Rivalry in Formula One
Sobre El Autor
Créditos de la imagen: Malcolm Folley / Sports Journalists' Association UK
Obras de Malcolm Folley
Etiquetado
Conocimiento común
- Nombre canónico
- Folley, Malcolm
- Fecha de nacimiento
- 1952-04-24
- Género
- male
- Nacionalidad
- UK
- Lugares de residencia
- Surrey, England, United Kingdom
- Ocupaciones
- chief sports reporter
- Relaciones
- Folley, Sian (daughter)
Folley, Megan (daughter) - Organizaciones
- Mail on Sunday
- Biografía breve
- Career - sports writer; indentured Sussex Express and County Herald 1968-72; news ed: Wimpey News 1972-73, Hayter's Sports Agency 1973; sports reporter: United Newspapers (London-based) 1973-75, Daily Express 1975-82, Mail on Sunday 1982-83; tennis corr Daily Mail 1984-86, dep ed Sportsweek 1986-87, sr sports writer Daily Express 1987-92, chief sports reporter Mail on Sunday 1992- (dep sports ed 1992); highly commended Magazine Sports Writer of the Year 1986, Sports Reporter of the Year 1991, highly commended Sports News Reporter of the Year 2004
Miembros
Reseñas
It's Wimbledon time, so time for me to read a book about tennis, by far my favourite spectator sport. This book by a tennis journalist recalls the rivalry between these two giants of the tennis court that dominated the late 70s and early 80s, though really Connors has to be added as a third member of the triumvirate, albeit perhaps at a slightly lower level. In particular it focuses on their epic Wimbledon final of 1980, when Borg won his fifth consecutive title, but not before McEnroe had saved seven match points in a fourth set culminating in a titanic tiebreak which the American won 18-16. Often referred to as "the tiebreak", it was frequently repeated on TV in later years during rain delays when there was no live play. Borg and McEnroe were polar opposites temperamentally and in their playing styles and yet there was a form of respect between them - McEnroe very rarely behaved badly according to his "Superbrat" reputation during matches with Borg, unlike with other players. This was a fascinating look back at a particular era of the sport which felt like a clash of two different generations (though Borg was only 3 years older). Borg's sudden departure from the tennis scene aged only 25 in 1981 after losing the US Open final to McEnroe, having lost his Wimbledon title to the American earlier that summer, was a shock then, and still comes across as such now. How differently these things were handled in an era long before the internet and social media.… (más)
Estadísticas
- Obras
- 5
- Miembros
- 83
- Popularidad
- #218,811
- Valoración
- 3.4
- Reseñas
- 2
- ISBNs
- 13
- Idiomas
- 2
This is an enjoyable — and quick — read about the most glamorous and demanding of F1 races, a race some drivers dread, and the great ones embrace for the challenge. Those looking for a comprehensive recap of F1 history at Monaco, a race by race, or even decade by decade examination, however, will be severely disappointed. The author took a sort of informal style that made this work accessible and readable. You don’t have to be a huge fan of the late Ayrton Senna, Mario Andretti, or Fernando Alonso, as I am. It is heavily loaded with reminiscences of true greats like Nikki Lauda, and the spectacular Jackie Stewart. Their memories and thoughts — especially Stewart’s — on Monaco, those terribly dangerous years when drivers were tragically dropping like flies in pursuit of speed and triumph, are mesmerizing. There are poignant, moving moments, but fun ones too.
Damon Hill, David Coulthard, Martin Brundle, Ross Brawn and Nico Rosberg are also represented here in their thoughts and memories of Monaco. No memory — or recounting — is more joyous or uplifting than that of Olivier Panis, a good driver who through a miracle some felt was on par with God giving Moses the power to part the Red Sea, won his only race at the crown jewel of F1 races. Make no mistake, Panis was a talented driver, and he made it to the podium again, but never at the top spot. As this book makes note of, were you to pose the question to nearly any F1 driver, which race would they like to have won, if at the end of their career, they only had one, most would undoubtedly answer, Monaco. Olivier Panis lived that dream.
For film fans, Grace Kelly is represented here as the one who brought added glamor and attention to the greatest race in F1. When she invited Hollywood friends to the race, the resulting coverage increased, and a larger world began to familiarize themselves with the ornate spectacle requiring so much skill and talent — and sometimes luck — that only the finest drivers in the world were up to the challenge. And sometimes, even they failed.
I came away liking Brundle a bit more than I had before reading this. I’m still not always a fan of his style or comments behind the microphone as his career transitioned, but he comes off as a pretty nice guy. The same with Coulthard. Damon Hill? Well, he came of as Damon Hill, and I guess that’s all I need to say.
While the bottom line is that this is a great and enjoyable read for the average or casual fan, or those unfamiliar with the sport, for those who know something of its history and have some perspective, it’s tremendously enjoyable without being great. A good analogy would be the distinction the author properly makes between great drivers, and the truly greatest of drivers. It is the author himself who makes this a great read, to his credit, but for serious fans, those with strong opinions about drivers and their history, it fails to elevate beyond that due to the author as well.
Caveat #1 — I’m fine with the accessible, easy style and flow of this, and the author’s decision to not make this a deep dive into every race, but for the real F1 fan, his decision to spend so little time on the early years of Monaco, details of those races and drivers, is a deep disappointment. We get so much on drivers of modern times, yet so little of a dive into those guys, or the breaks in years of racing at Monaco due to circumstance. To the casual fan, I’d urge them to go flip to the back of the book before you begin reading. On the page after the acknowledgements, the Monaco winners are listed, in order, from its inception. You’re not going to get a ton of information on their careers or wins, so if you want to know more about their moment in the history of this great race, look them up sometime when you have a few moments.
Caveat #2 — Here we come to weeds and bias. Since this book was predominantly about Monaco, I expected the writer to focus pretty solely on that. But he gets into the weeds of Formula One and these drivers at times, and to me he comes off as a fan, losing objectivity. It’s subtle, but it’s there. In the latter part of the book, he spends far too much time on Schumacher. These were weeds he shouldn’t have gotten off in because he seems unwilling to acknowledge the more unpleasant aspects of the driver’s racing, and incidents that repeatedly called into question his honesty in regard to them. These were no ticky-tack incidents, and they repeatedly cropped up throughout his career; no more glaringly than an incident at Monaco. Yet the author allows Brawn (who having worked with Schumacher can certainly be suspected of bias) slough these off as apparations. Really? Perhaps it was because of the tragedy that befall this great driver after he’d stopped racing that the author used rose-colored glasses. This was a case, however, of a writer walking out into the weeds beyond the scope of his book, but then refusing to look down and examine them too closely.
The same can be said of Aryton Senna. Prost and Senna were both greats, but the author goes into weeds much deeper with Senna, and less flatteringly, than he does Prost, showing his bias for Prost. Again, he should not have gone into the weeds, beyond the scope of the book’s title — for either driver. Having already written, Senna versus Prost, what was the point? Prost won Monaco four times, he’s one of the truly greats of the sport, but Senna won Monaco six times, and his drive in the rain is the stuff of legend. If this were truly a book about Monaco, it would have ended there. And that’s my issue as an informed F1 fan, with Malcolm Folley getting off into the weeds, and off the fairway. He goes out there for no apparent reason, but then he brings a putter so he won’t leave a divot.
We get a ton of Rosberg near the end of this book, and his championship season. Though this is fine, because Rosberg was excellent around Monaco, a multiple winner, here again, Folley’s in the weeds. Perhaps because he’s a Hamilton fan he doesn’t dive into the crappy way Rosberg had to hang on to that championship thanks to a questionable — at best — tactic by Lewis. I kept thinking, “If this guy’s gonna fire it off the fairway and into the tall grass deliberately so often, why doesn’t he bring more than a putter when he gets there?”
Being biased myself — but I didn’t write the book — I was happy to hear Jackie Stewart talk about Prost’s ability in certain things, and have Jackie mention Alonso as maybe one of only two guys racing now with that same level of skill and ability. I was disappointed that Fernando’s back to back wins at Monaco, for two different teams and manufacturers nonetheless, was given no time at all (unless I missed it somehow).
Overall, this is a wonderful book to own, and despite a few minor — and they were minor, really — caveats, most casual fans will learn a lot, and have an enjoyable time doing so with Malcolm Folley’s book. It’s grand really, a fun read. The only important caveat is for buffs; that being the lack of time spent on the past, and too much with Schumacher and Rosberg near the end of the book. But even that is really only a quibble to a book I’m glad to have read, thus the five stars.… (más)