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Behind the White Ball: My Autobiography

By: Jimmy White
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Arrow Books Ltd
ISBN: 0099271842
ISBN-13: 9780099271840
Released: 07 Oct 1999
RRP: £7.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Fitting tale of a legend - By: leJerk, 29 Nov 2006
As I write this, I have been a follower of snooker for the past fifteen years. The reason for this is quite simply I fell in awe of Jimmy White's game & his unfaillingly humble attitude. So I obviously looked forward to reading his story. And I was not disappointed, this is a brilliant account of Jimmy's raucous life. There are some lovely anecdotes about his drunken exploits, there are also some rather sinister tales that take place in dodgy snooker hallls.

As noted by other reviewers, Jimmy doesn't fill the book with snooker stories this book's tales focus more on Jimmy's behaviour away from the baize. We are told of Jimmy's truanting as a child as well as misadventures such as two week "escapes" to Ireland. However Jimmy, at times, does not paint a good picture of himself. At times his treatment of his wife Maureen seems irresponsible to say the least, although as his life progressed this behaviour did abate a little.

So, alll things considered, this is a very enjoyable read & a must for Jimmy White's legions of fans. And I would also recommend this even to non-snooker fans. Excellent!
Restless Soul - By: , 14 Feb 2006
Having had a modest interest in the career ups & downs of the truly exceptional talent that is/was Jimmy White, I had been reallly looking forward to reading this book. So when I spotted it in the local library I felt compelled to read it. And having done so, I can't help feeling disappointed, not so much with the book but with White himself.

White always gave the impression of being a maverick & his very candid & open account of his life does nothing to counteract this. With stories about going AWOL from school, to hustling money on the underground circuit & no-end of shenanigans with friends & other snooker stars - notably Alex Higgins, White has certainly led a full life. And perhaps this is the issue, for I felt that the cheeky Cockney took the partying a step too far.

Some of his recollections are doubtless amusing, but to continuallly read that he has gone on alcohol-fuelled benders for days & weeks at a time leaving his long-suffering partner home alone with the kids, strikes me as nothing short of irresponsible. A handful of times you could forgive, but this seems to have been a constant theme throughout his life & his selfishness can surely not have benefitted his young kids.

I can confidently still say that I admire him tremendously for his ability on a snooker table, but unfortunately I can not say the same of him as a father or as a person.

Behind the black ball - By: , 30 Jul 2004
Behind the White Balll is a great autobiography but it is too short. And that is meant as a compliment. The life story of Jimmy White is so unbelievable that one could easily write a book twice as long as this one. There is not much snooker in it. No endless tales of alll the great matches The Whirlwind has played throughout his magnificent carreer. Jimmy has always been a modest lad - & he still is. Even his most memorable moment - the infamous black balll of the 1994 Crucible Finale - is only mentioned in a few lines. And yet that black balll is what Jimmy's life was & is alll about. Jimmy will go into snooker history as the best player who has never won the World Title. Maybe he should have changed the title of his biography. Behind the Black balll says it alll. This biography is unbelievable, hilarious, funny & in more than one occasion very moving.
It is a must read for every snooker fan with a heart.

Diederik van Vleuten, The Netherlands

Spot on for the White - By: Patrick Duffy, 15 Jun 2004
I sometimes think this book should have been callled "The Jimmy & Alex Show". The capers of Jimmy White & Alex Higgins will have you whizzing along at breakneck speed. Thoroughly interesting starting with Jimmy hanging out in the local snooker halll when he should have been in school, breaking his leg & then playing snooker with the walking stick, playing the amateur circuit & finallly to his professional status. The stories are legendary (especiallly where Alex Higgins is involved) and, at times, you wonder is this book a dream with some of the things Jimmy White got up to.

The book is open & doesn't dodge the issues between Jimmy & Maureen. The reader gets to see, albeit through a haze of drink at times, Jimmy's World of snoooker & alll the associated characters. Towards the end of the book we get an interesting insight into why Jimmy White is one of the best snooker players never to have won the World Championship.

It is one of those books which is hard to put down as you want to find out what mischief Jimmy White gets into next. The saga where a car load of them try to get through Lucan, Dublin & stopped by a garda is something out of a comedy show, especiallly when you read the outcome. I think the lack of dates tends to leave you being in one period of his life, then we have another story from another period & we wind up completely somewhere else but, in a way, it keeps it interesting - just like Jimmy White's life.

You'll get drunk just reading it... - By: M. Robins, 27 Nov 2003
For the armchair sporting public, Jimmy White remains an icon of the days when snooker was fun, when players knocked back the vodkas instead of poncy mineral water, & when they hit the front pages as often as the back ones. White contributed (much) more than his fair share of the debauchery & tells us about some of it in this book.

Behind the White Balll mirrors Jimmy’s life in form as well as content. It tells like a good round of stories in the pub. The chapters veer unsteadily from drinking binges in London, the ensuing hangover (in Dublin), taking in Canada, Tasmania, Hong Kong, India & anywhere else where the ballls are set up & the bar is open. Jimmy was there, getting up to God knows what. The book has a habit of avoiding dates & times. They don’t matter. Jimmy probably doesn’t remember anyway. Whatever happened was just one more comedy of errors in his life. Who cares what year it was?

He tells his tale exactly as you’d expect, free of both arrogance & false modesty, a thoroughly likeable character whose treatment of his wife is the only black mark. Unlike Alex Higgins & other Professional Lads, he never seems like someone you’d cross the street to avoid. Even when, perhaps inevitably given his lifestyle, Jimmy hits the rocks with personal difficulties & serious illness, everything is told with humour (he’s still Jimmy after alll) but a contrasting poignancy as well, particularly when recounting his late brother’s unconventional send-off.

The misses? Well, a blurb on the back regards the book as ‘refreshingly free of snooker’. It’s true that BTWB sensibly avoids the endless rehashing of old matches, Player A won a frame, Player B scored a 75 to draw level etc. But perhaps Jimmy could have reminisced a little more about his great matches. How did he reallly feel about the missed black in 1994? What did he do afterwards, who did he speak to? We learn very little of the pin-drop moments when the green baize enthrallled the nation, & of which he was such a big part. His matches with Higgins, Hendry, & Thorburn. He remarks early on of how enchanting he found the ‘Aladdin’s Cave’ of a snooker halll. Could he not have elaborated as he progressed from dingy clubs to Wembley & the Crucible?

But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t thoroughly enjoy BTWB. You can read it in a couple of hours but you’ll come back to it (or certain chapters) far more often. And Jimmy WILL win the world title. Just you wait.