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Alex "Hurricane" Higgins after seeing a TV documentary on him several years ago,I thought what an intriguing character, a sporting genius who did much to take snooker from the the old damp billiard halls into the realms of prime time TV but who managed, somehow, to make a fortune and then blow it all on drink, drugs and easy women.

Bill Borrows, unauthorised book pulls no punches, the 1st chapter has to be one of the best opening chapters of any biography I've ever read, It somehow captures the strange world that Higgins once inhabited, his cantankerous and difficult nature, and his sad demise from snooker legend to drunkard and drifter and onward.

If you know nothing about snooker, the book is highly readable and, at times, just plain laugh out loud hilarious, as the following extract reveals, "He took off his hat, pulled a comb out of his pocket, dipped it in a glass of vodka and orange on the table, stood up and then combed his hair in the mirror over the fireplace, It is always the little things which give it away."

In many ways The Hurricane is a bit like an accident waiting to happen, you know what's coming but you can't tear your eyes away, Higgins' penchant for self destruction, his flawed genius and his vulnerability make this a thoroughly entertaining, if somewhat sobering, read, my only quibble is that it lacks a glossary of snooker terms, But all in all, you'd be hard pressed to find a more interesting and jaw dropping sporting biography.

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