by Boomert - The Wide World of Ken Sutcliffe by Sutcliffe and Ian Heads 12 Jan 2010

Ken Sutcliffe once caught Gina Lolabrigida’s eye at a Townsville Maraka festival. Since then, he’s bustled his way through the world’s most prestigious sporting events and even been on a photo shoot with Elle McPherson. Nostalgically unfolding from humble beginnings in Mudgee NSW, his autobiography makes its way through regional radio and television, all the way to the Wide World of Sports. The strengths of the book are certainly not in the writing or the sense of predestination in the ‘poor country-boy does good’ narrative. They are in Sutcliffe’s affable, matterof- fact take on the glamour of the modern sporting world, its combatants and its commentators. We are offered the self-confessed academic second stringer’s view of Grand Finals, Wimbledon and the Olympics. We see him working with Graham Kennedy, hear his criticisms of modern rugby league, learn of secret job offers and his loyalty, misplaced or not, to Channel Nine all with his principled, grounded, country humour. A qualified barber and the only person ever to appear as himself in the ‘12th Man’ series, there is a good deal more to the smiling, well-groomed face of weekend sport and a good deal more to the feelgood story of his success.

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine (March 2009, Vol 88, No 6.) is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2009, Thorpe-Bowker.