Memoirs of a Rugby-Playing Man Guts, Glory, and Blood in the World's Greatest Game

by Atkinson, Jay

• ISBN13: 9780312547691
• ISBN10: 0312547692
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-04-24
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books

Summary

If all sports are really about war, then rugby is a heart-thumping epic of bayonet charges and hand-to-hand fighting. In Memoirs of a Rugby-Playing Man, bestselling author Jay Atkinson describes his thirty-five year odyssey in the sport-from his rough and rowdy days at the University of Florida, through the intrigue of various foreign tours, club championships, and all star selections, up to his current stint with the freewheeling Vandals Rugby Club out of Los Angeles. Jay has played in more than 500 matches, for which he's suffered three broken ribs, a detached retina, a fractured cheekbone and orbital bone, four deadened teeth, and a dislocated ankle. Written in the style of Siegried Sassoon's Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, Atkinson's book explains why it was all worth it--the sum total of his violent adventures, and the valuable insights he has gained from them.

Author Biography

A former two-sport college athlete, Jay Atkinson is the author of seven books, including the bestsellers Legends of Winter Hill and Ice Time, as well as the classic rugby novel, Caveman Politics. He teaches writing at Boston University.

Table of Contents

Praise for Jay Atkinson

“Jay Atkinson, the bard of New England toughness, a cross between the poet Robert Frost and the Bruins’ Bobby Orr. Nobody writes about the thick-headed glories of sport with redder blood than Atkinson…. [He] evokes the true joy of kicking ass.” --Men's Health

"A bona-fide masterstroke." — Publishers Weekly on Ice Time

"[Atkinson] seamlessly weaves his past with current events, detailing the team's fortunes while lovingly recalling his own at that time of life." — The Virginian-Pilot on Ice Time

"An evocative, bittersweet, poetic journey of a grown man trying, as we all try, not to recapture youth but to remember the splendor of it." — H. G. Bissinger, author of the bestselling Friday Night Lights on Ice Time

“Atkinson keeps his plot moving at a good pace, offering enough twists to keep the reader’s attention, but it is the humor and insight of his characters that make the novel work.” --The New York Times Book Review on Caveman Politics