A powerful memoir by an extraordinary figure - rugby player, artist, acclaimed playwright and novelist - David Storey takes us from his tough upbringing in Wakefield to being 'sold' to Rugby League, to his escape to the Slade School of Art and life in post-war London. He describes shocking, often darkly comic scenes in the deprived East End schools in which he taught. He documents the childhood death of his eldest brother, addressing much of the memoir to him and exploring how this relates to his own sometimes paralysing depression. And yet, as a prolific and celebrated writer, he recalls heady spells in New York, close relationships in the theatre with Jocelyn Herbert, ralph Richardson and Lindsay Anderson, early success with This Sporting Life, and winning the Booker. - Book cover.