Book review: To Be Honest With You, by Linford Christie

I am a second-hand book addict.  I can scarcely walk past a charity shop or, more rarely, a proper second-hand bookshop without going in to check out what they have stashed on their shelves.  When it comes to sporting or health and fitness books, it is hard to prevent me from splashing out, unless I have no cash to hand.

Recently, while in Salisbury visiting relatives, I came across this unlikely offering: Linford Christie’s autobiography, To Be Honest With You (affiliate links: UK, US).

A great British athlete

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Was it any good?

Yes!  This is a very readable and insightful book into both Linford Christie as an athlete and British athletics in general in the 1980′s and the 1990′s, the period of time when Frank Dick was the Director of Coaching (1979 – 1994).

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So what’s it about?

Well, Linford takes a little time to explain his very early life in Jamaica, followed by his childhood in London, England.  He talks matter-of-factly about the racism that was prevalent and the persecution that he and his family experienced at the hands of the police.  His tone is not bitter and he appears to bear no grudges but it is clear that these were not always happy times.

After this, Linford talks passionately about his early sporting career and the talent that he found he had for sprinting.  He is critical of his early success, which he achieved with little training compared to the hard work ethic he later developed in the gym and on the track.

Soon after his early successes, Linford describes the first of many run-ins with the Director of Coaching for UK Athletics, Frank Dick.  This surprised me, as I have only read positive reviews of Frank before.  However, the way in which Frank Dick is described in Linford’s book makes him appear egotistical, domineering and completely out-of-touch with his athletes.

Obviously, it seems that part of this poor relationship stemmed from Frank not backing Linford from the beginning.  For whatever reason, Frank backed other sprinters, who turned out to have a fraction of Linford’s ability and drive.  Linford found this lack of support difficult.  However, other incidents involving other athletes were involved, and Linford often describes situations where he found himself standing up for less successful performers against what he saw as the dictatorial whims of a demotivating and unhelpful character.

Other clashes described in the book are mainly with the media.  It is really shocking to hear what nefarious and unpleasant practices the British media engage in.  Linford describes how they kept popping up in surprising places and shoving lenses in people’s faces, deliberately provoked headlines by asking for photos of Linford with his arm around female British athletes and claiming he was having an affair, and asked leading questions about other athlete’s fitness and claimed that he was bad-mouthing them.

Frankly, now when I read about a reporter getting punched in the mouth for intruding on a celebrity, I am minded to believe that they probably deserved it.

Personality and media clashes aside, the sports fan will find much to enjoy in this book.  Inside the dust-jacket, the subtitle of this is “Britain’s Most Succesful Athlete”.  I think that there are other contenders for this title both before Linford’s time (Geoff Capes is still Britain’s most capped athlete of all time) and after (Chris Hoy has taken four Olympic medals already and will compete in 2012).  However, there is no doubt that Linford is one of Britain’s most successful athletes and he is in very good company.

It’s also interesting to read about the weights work that he did as part of his training.  He discusses the use of free weight exercises, including cleans, squats and bench press but only mentions poundages once, when he talks about walking out a squat with 300kg.  Whether this was a half-squat (as I understand are often used by sprinters) or a full squat, I don’t know.

Some of the highlights of the book are hearing Linford describe what it was like to:

• Silver in Seoul - take silver in the 100m final at the 1988 Seoul Olympics (at which Ben Johnson ran 9.79s and was disqualified for failing a drug test).  Linford describes how Ben just left him and Carl Lewis standing: he was gone.  Linford ran like he was being chased to become the first European to run a sub-10s 100m, with 9.97s to cross the line in third place.

• Gold in Barcelona - take gold at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, a race which Linford described as being the first at which he ran his own race, to be the best he could be and not to chase anyone else.  He stayed relaxed and won with a time of 9.96s.

Linford winning the 1992 final

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There are obviously lots of other great sporting moments, including when Linford beat Carl Lewis in Gateshead, but for me these are the two that stand out.

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Should I buy this book?

If you are interested in one of the greatest British athletes, the history of British athletics in the 1980′s and 1990′s or merely two of the most heart-stopping 100m finals of the last 25 years, buy this book.