Absolutely Foxed – Simply Stunning

Like many Lancashire Country Cricket Club fans Graeme Fowler is a player we all remember well, a great player, for Lancashire, Durham and for a short time England. So this autobiography automatically was a draw to me, even though I tend to avoid sports autobiographies as they tend to be poor. This one breaks the mould we really do see both the highs and the very lows of Graeme Fowler’s life, and something that he hid, his depression and his fight with show more it.

There are also stories in here that will make you smile and laugh out loud, and some I sort of remember from the, and I use the term loosely, newspapers of the time. In 1984, when Fowler was part of the Ashes touring party, I was all set to take my ‘O’ levels, and I remember the pictures of Elton John at the cricket. How Fowler found himself at a lavish party thrown by Elton John and later sat between him and his then wife Renate, whom he bit on the arm. Only the intervention of Ian Botham stopped this descending in to something worse when he manhandled back to the team hotel.

Fowler does something that many would not, he talks about his depression from the first chapter, and for those who have had mental health problems will tell you this is the best way. He is searingly honest about his depression and to the places that it took him, many will recognise the inability of being able to raise yourself off the sofa when the black mist befalls you. You see how hard it is to tell people about your problems and then the really hit and miss of medication, how you really have to wait and see if the medication is actually working.

There is also plenty about his sporting past, which during the 1980s meant the all-powerful West Indies team, when their pace attack could put you in the hospital, or back in the pavilion if you were lucky. With his wonderful gallows humour, Foxy recalls the chaos of the England set up of the time, not that much seems to have changed on that score.

Fowler’s fantastic career was cut short while he was at the top, after it was discovered that he had been playing throughout his career with a broken neck, from a car accident in his early career. But rather than taking this knock badly he set up the Centre of Excellent at Durham University, and has been an influence on many people in the sport.

What this book does show that depression can happen to anyone without fear or favour, it just happens and somehow you have to deal with it, the best you can, in a way that suits you best. Fowler’s story is wonderfully interesting and eye opening, and is a must read for any cricket fan. For those who have suffered depression will recognise parts of themselves in this book, and it does encourage you.

A book that delivers more than the usual sporting autobiographies. show less

Jul 21, 2016