Craig Brown: The Game of my Life - Bernard Bale, Craig Brown

Advantages: Interesting early life, Great career, Interesting to read
Disadvantages: None

...Alex Ferguson is one of the people I most admire in football today. As much as I hate Manchester United I have to look on at his record with admiration, and I actually like the bloke as a person. Not only has he dominated English football over the last decade with his Manchester United team, also breaking the Rangers/Celtic domination in Scotland with Aberdeen and as a player. Although recently he has dropped hints otherwise, he will be retiring this summer to draw down the curtain on an illustrious career. ‘Managing My Life’ is his autobiography that covers all this and more. The book starts with a recollection of the magical events at the 1999 European Cup final when his United team beat Bayer Munich with a late come back. This was arguably the crowning glory of his Manchester career and is a good place to start... Read review

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Advantages: A cracking good yarn
Disadvantages: It's full of holes and poorly researched

..., most of which have long been accepted by the vast majority of theologians to be heretical in nature, with dubious authorship. ~ ~ According to Brown the whole New Testament is simply the result of a huge conspiracy by the predominately male leaders of the early Christian Church, with the worst offender being Constantine, the first Roman Emperor to embrace the Christian faith. Brown would have us believe that in fact Constantine never converted to Christianity at all, remained a dedicated pagan (sun worshipper) all his life, and was the moving force behind the Council of Nicaea in 325, where Christ’s divinity and celibacy were enshrined forever in Christian doctrine. Quite why Constantine, the most powerful political leader of the times, would want to support an “alternative religion” such as Christianity if he were in fact a sun... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Great read, start of a continuing story arc
Disadvantages: A wee bit dated as world events have overtaken it

...to give the reader a fascinating insight into the workings of the American military. No detail is insignificant with Brown, no matter how small it is. Dreamland, his greatest creation, actually does exist somewhere in the Nevada desert (it’s more commonly known as “Area 51”), but he takes a mixture of real life and his own imagination to bring it successfully to life. Never mind daft tales of Alien ships and conspiracy theories – to Brown, it is just another ultra-secret research facility, and as such it fits in well with the scope of the book. Brown’s writing style is fluid and consistent, and he manages to combine action and politics incredibly well. The author I would most closely compare him to is Craig Thomas, although I think that Brown is the superior writer – he knows his subject matter better than Thomas, and his style... Read review

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