My English teacher would often insist that we read autobiographies and let them co-exist with the other trashy literature we’d stack up on our bookshelves during those heady days.
My English teacher would often insist that we read autobiographies and let them co-exist with the other trashy literature we’d stack up on our bookshelves during those heady days of boys, pimples and perms.
She would hand out a reading-list every month that was sure to have Mahatma Gandhi’s The Story of My Experiments with Truth or Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom or some such ‘important’ book in it.
Autobiographies didn’t quite appeal to me. I’d think of them as moralistic and pompous writings that I could do without, much to the annoyance of Mrs M.
Not any more. Autobiographies have had a makeover. They need no longer be lessons for life but juicy, saucy tell-all accounts of achievers trying to make a very quick buck.
I can’t wait to get my hands on Adam Gilchrist’s True Colours. Something that creates such sensation, (Gilly made a long-distance call to Sachin Tendulkar to clarify a few misunderstandings) definitely warrants a read.
Or for that matter Didier Drogba’s autobiography, an updated version of which is now available in English, after it was first published in French in May this year.
Drogba is a brave player, his physicality adding rawness to his style. His book, it seems, has turned out just as bold.
In it, Drogba has written how he wished he had punched Nemanja Vidic during the Champions League final between Chelsea and Manchester United in May. The Ivory Coast striker was sent off during the second period of extra time in Moscow for slapping United’s Serbian defender.
Drogba wrote, “I have seen the match on video and I believe I should not have been sent off with three minutes to go. If I had punched him, I would have understood. Now I wish I had.” United went on to win that game and the title 6-5 in a shoot out, after a dramatic 1-1.
Much like Gilly’s book, Drogba’s comments have created uproar in England. Some say that Drogba should face disciplinary action, like Roy Keane, former United captain had six years ago. Keane was banned for five games and fined £150,000 for the graphic account in his autobiography of his attempt to deliberately injure Alf-Inge Haaland, the former Leeds United midfielder.
However, the FA has confirmed that it will take no action against Drogba, after studying the remark in context of the book.
The controversy is sure to increase the sale of the book. I’ve already placed my order.
I have another interest in the book, for I am curious to read about his interactions with Jose Mourinho, during his time at Chelsea. I am more curious to know if Didier will come out with another updated version of the autobiography, now that Mourinho, the manager of AC Milan, says that Didier was always a diver. For aren’t autobiographies now a means of settling old scores also.
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