Legacy

Nick Compton

• Publisher: Allen & Unwin
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN:
  9781838958268
• Print ISBN:
  9781838958251

Powerful memoir of cricket, family and depression by former England cricketer Nick Compton. Nick Compton had it all. A literal golden boy, to many observers it would seem that he was born to be a great in the sporting arena coming as he did from an incredible sporting ancestry. HIs grandfather Sir Denis Compton played cricket for England and football for Arsenal. Honed at an elite English boarding school, with a telegenic profile perfectly suited to the modern media environment, Nick appeared to be blessed with that rare ability to be able to stride out and face down the world's quickest bowlers, to survive and thrive in the danger zone at the hands of the hurtling new ball. However, greatness in any field comes at a price and this memoir explores the almost 'Faustian pact' he made in order to secure that time in the sun. It will show what 'Mistress Cricket' demanded from Nick as his side of that bargain. The family he left behind, the failed relationships both personal and professional and the utter physical and mental exhaustion which resulted from his drive to stay at the top.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Prologue
• 1: Old and new
• 2: Grandad
• 3: The obsession
• 4: To Harrow and beyond
• 5: The impatience of youth
• 6: ‘You’ve done nothing, mate’
• 7: A breakthrough
• 8: A new beginning
• 9: ‘Just don’t ever get out’
• 10: The Compton Cricket Club
• 11: A dream realised
• 12: This isn’t going to be easy
• 13: A series win and niggling doubts
• 14: Proving my worth
• 15: A sense of injustice
• 16: ‘They simply don’t like Nick Compton’
• 17: A Middlesex recall
• 18: A clean slate
• 19: So near and yet so far
• 20: Walking the Lord’s plank
• 21: An inevitable conclusion
• 22: A lens on life
• 23: The graft behind the craft
• 24: A sum of its parts
• 25: A legacy of my own
• Acknowledgements
• Plates section