No Spin My Autobiography By Shane Warne with Mark Nicholas Release date: 15th October, 2018 Publisher: Ebury Press List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £13.00 You Save: £7 (35%) Buy Now

Shane Warne’s story is well known. After all, there have been more than a dozen biographies, ‘autobiographies’ and hagiographies as well as a small library of cut-and-paste ‘coffee table’ books celebrating a man who, despite being a constant thorn in England’s side for decades, remains respected and admired on these shores. The glut of books focusing on Warne’s career is testimony to his ability. He made his Test debut after just seven first-class appearances and went on to take more than 1,000 Test and ODI wickets and score more than 3,000 Test match runs. Yet the statistics cannot necessarily explain why, throughout a career which included a 12-month ban, Warne has remained the personification of the smiling, devil-may-care Aussie bloke with whom other men would like to share a beer and with whom many women would simply like to spend some time. “Women have been both his fund and his folly. Cricket has been his fulfilment,” observes Mark Nicholas, who transcribed over 35 hours’ of recorded conversations with Warne to produce what is undoubtedly the definitive Warne autobiography. Each chapter heading is named after a song close to Warne’s heart - Satisfaction, Heroes, Start Me Up, Reason to Believe, I’m Still Standing etc – designed to reflect a specific period of his life; it’s a method which, when combined with a superbly edited transcription, provides the reader with an authentic sportsman’s voice, one rarely witnessed in sporting tomes. For instance, Warne describes the nervousness that every sportsman and woman encounters prior to a big game, in this instance, his final Test match, but then the moment to take to the field of play, to perform, arrives. As the team runs out, the nerves disappear. It is, says Warne, “…like someone had shut the negative energy door and opened the positive one.” He describes the sensation as “white line fever.” Later, a man not renowned as a deep thinker delivers a line that sport psychologists everywhere will soon be using. “So much sport is in the mind,” he says, adding: “and the more aggressive you think, the more things will go in your favour.” It’s an approach that worked throughout ‘Warney’s illustrious career. Richie Benaud called Warne the greatest bowler that cricket had ever seen. Thankfully, with No Spin, he finally has an autobiography that does Benaud’s shrewd observation justice.