The Autobiography

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Get to know England's most-loved batsman in the compelling autobiography from Alastair Cook.

Watch. The. Ball.

It's just you. Standing at the crease. Waiting. The bowler is running. His arm swinging. The ball - 155 grams of cork, string and leather - is hurled at you. At 90 mph it travels 22 yards in under half a second . . .

Alastair Cook, one of England's most decorated players and highest test run scorer, knows what it is like to be your best under pressure. Yet at 33 he called time on his England career.

Come with him as he relives the fraught hours on the pitch, the desperate lows and astonishing highs, the paralysing anxiety that can send the best back home and the extraordinary battle of wills with yourself, the opposing players and even those supposedly on your own side.

This is cricket as you've never seen it. The view from the inside . . .

© Alastair Cook 2019 (P) Penguin Audio 2019

Critics Review

  • Bracingly honest about the brutal nature of professional cricket

    The Times

  • He is England’s greatest ever batsman…but behind that choirboy exterior, Cook is as tough as tugboats, a man who has spent his life doing one of the hardest, scariest jobs in sports – opening the batting in Test cricket. This hugely enjoyable book gives you an idea of quite how challenging it is, and makes you see that finding a replacement for “The Chef” at the top of England’s batting order won’t be any picnic

    Sports Books of the Year Daily Mail

  • Hugely enjoyable

    Sport Books of the Year, Daily Mail

  • A fascinating and layered book which delves into the psychological challenges of the game . . . a timely read at the end of an exhilarating yet flawed summer for English cricket

    Guardian

  • The best books to buy sports fans this Christmas

    Daily Telegraph

  • It makes for fascinating reading, as the former England captain recounts what it took to succeed at the top of his game – and reveals what made him decide to hang up his whites at the relatively early age of 33

    Radio Times

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