Unbreakable: Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2023

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I went to AA and NA. I learned about addiction and struggled for about three or four years, because I just couldn’t accept that I was an addict,” he says today. Marc writes (main picture): I specifically focused on the South Africa captain Siya Kolisi, far left, as he sung the national anthem, Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, as he sings with so much passion and emotion. Raised in Essex, O’Sullivan, 47, won his first UK Championship at the age of 17. He is regarded as the greatest snooker player of all time, having won seven world, seven Masters and seven UK titles. He is currently the world No 1. He published his first autobiography, Ronnie, in 2003; his latest, Unbreakable, has just been released. He lives in Essex with actor Laila Rouass and has three children. Purchasing a book may earn the NS a commission from Bookshop.org, who support independent bookshops In the new tome, Ronnie writes about his 31-year career, from being a teenage snooker prodigy and winning titles within a year of turning professional to becoming the greatest snooker player of all time and breaking world records.

Unbreakable: Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of

I said, ‘I feel guilty sometimes for just enjoying the game, because I know it takes something away from being a winner. But if I tried to be a winner, I think I just wouldn't want to play anymore because it's too stressful at my age.’ He went, ‘you're doing the right thing. If you can just enjoy it and have fun.’” Now it feels a lot better: everyone is just in a better place. I just want to see her and her daughter [Rouass has a teenage daughter from a previous relationship] and her family, who are like my family, happy.” Besides quite a few laughs, many readers will find recognition, reassurance, remedy and revelation in O'Sullivan's candid story. I highly recommend it.' - THE TIMES Monster pieces calling for multiple soloists, a lusty chorus and an orchestra almost toppling off the stage... ★★★★☆ Rugby union | Premiership guide Why omens are bad for Gloucester at Sale, Exeter’s stat kings and Leicester on alert

First night reviews

He said: “That was the deal breaker for me, like writing a book I just had to trust, he knew what he was doing. Ronnie is searingly honest, candidly funny, and thought provokingly brilliant in Unbreakable. I devoured it.' - NIHAL ARTHANAYAKE In some ways, he is looking forward to his snooker career coming to an end — he predicts he may continue for another couple of years, or longer — but while he’s still doing well, he won’t quit.

Unbreakable by Ronnie O’Sullivan review: how snooker’s genius

I love the game,” Ronnie reiterated. “I phoned Steve up about six months ago, I said, ‘Steve, you're ahead of me in the game, but I’d just like to just cross-reference where I am. Am I doing alright, because sometimes I've switched off from it's all about the wins to I just love the game. Is that wrong?’ O’Sullivan is candid when detailing the struggles with which both “Snooker Ronnie” and the tea-loving, scone-scoffing “Ordinary Ronnie” have contended. He writes about how both his parents were imprisoned while he was still a teenager, his own time as a distant father and his spell in rehab. This rationalist, therapeutic approach – which he owes to his time with the psychiatrist Steve Peters – is also evident in O’Sullivan’s treatment of his iconic sporting moments, such as his tightly contested World Championship semi-final against John Higgins in 2022, which O’Sullivan won, going on to claim his seventh title. Unbreakable provides a fascinating insight into the fortitude and fragility of an elite sportsperson’s mind. UK: Rishi Sunak hosts talks with Kamala Harris, vice-president of the US, at No 10, followed by a private dinner; Harris also delivers a policy speech on the future of AI at the US embassy in London; Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, speaks at the annual conference of the King’s Fund, a health think tank; start of Movember, the moustache-growing charity event held during November each year to raise funds and awareness for men’s health. Frank Adamson, my first coach, for not spending more time with him in his later years. I feel bad about that. The deaths of innumerable indigenous Americans from infections brought by the first European colonists left the newcomers short of cheap labour, he notes,Monster pieces calling for multiple soloists, a lusty chorus and an orchestra almost toppling off the stage have become one of the specialities of the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Edward Gardner, its principal conductor. One month ago their concert account of Tippett’s opera The Midsummer Marriage... ★★★★☆ As a detective story, the account can be ponderous, comprising false starts and complaints about relatives reluctant to revisit the past. As a portrait of life in a changing Ukraine, though, the narrative sparkles with details of rural life and Soviet-inherited bureaucratic absurdity. The denouement will be no surprise to anyone familiar with the horrors of Stalinism. Belim describes her family as having “survived more tragedies than should be allotted by fate”, a characterisation just as applicable to Ukraine itself. The Rooster House is a moving account of a still much-misunderstood country, given extra poignancy by the disaster now unfolding. In a career spanning over three decades, Ronnie O'Sullivan's journey to becoming the greatest snooker player of all time has been filled with extremes.

Ronnie O’Sullivan: ‘I could have been the ultimate player Ronnie O’Sullivan: ‘I could have been the ultimate player

In his second autobiography, Ronnie O’Sullivan describes his biggest challenge: “To become someone I could look at in the mirror and not turn away from.” Such vulnerability might not be what you’d expect to hear from a snooker legend. But Unbreakable adds to a growing subgenre of sports media that goes beyond surface-level accounts of an athlete’s career highs, instead focusing on the psychological tolls of elite sport and daily life – and how they often overlap. Staying on the straight and narrow. I know I am an addict – I’ve got an addictive personality – but as long as it’s not affecting my life or people around me then I think it’s OK. At 47, he’s been at the top of his game for longer than many of his peers. Yet it wasn’t an easy start for the former ‘bad boy’ of snooker, given his family history (his father was jailed for murder when O’Sullivan was 16) and his battles with drugs, alcohol and depression. The Tom he’s referring to is sports journalist and co-writer Tom Fordyce, and Ronnie admitted their love of running helped to build the bond before sitting down to write.

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The Washington-born, Baltimore-based pianist Lafayette Gilchrist treads a very personal path, combining the stride and blues styles of the old school with the hip-hop and go-go funk rhythms of his youth. It’s a powerful blend, especially on this densely arranged sextet album of originals. Solid... Lafayette Gilchrist Reading this is like watching an O'Sullivan break: hypnotic, dazzling and impossible to tear yourself away from.' - STEPHEN FRY What is it with prisons on TV at the moment? If it’s not Time sending you to bed petrified... Banged Up Framed around the many lessons Ronnie has learned from his extraordinary career, Unbreakable takes us beyond the success and record-breaking achievements to share the reality - and brutality - of making it to the very top, whatever your field. Ronnie is the first to say he doesn't have all the answers, but in sharing the experiences that have shaped him and mistakes that have made him, he hopes to help readers navigate their own personal challenges and obstacles, and in turn reach their maximum potential.

Unbreakable by Ronnie O’Sullivan review — all hail the god of

Now, though, he is able to separate his snooker life from his other interests, and the balance has helped him love the sport again. O’Sullivan has been described as “the most naturally gifted player ever”. He was potting balls from age seven and had scored his first century by 10, beating all in his wake before turning professional at 16.LATEST | NI traffic alerts: Full list of road closures due to flooding and Larne road closed after collision I got falsely accused of a kidnapping when I was 17 or 18. It was scary: they took me and my mate in separately, strip-searched me, took my car away for forensics, put me in a white paper suit. I was like: “What’s going on here?” Ronnie O’Sullivan was in primary school when his father gave him his first proper snooker cue. It was a beauty: a Burwat Champion, made by the company that once supplied Queen Victoria with a snooker table. The cue was second-hand, but Ronnie Sr knew that it — like his son — was special. “The only way he managed to persuade the geezer who owned it to hand it over was giving him a car in return,” O’Sullivan writes. I put a lot of work into it,” he shared. “Obviously when you do a book, you want it to be authentic and people have got to read it, so we wanted to do the best job we and Tom did, we put our heart and soul into it.” and was a major driver of the transatlantic slave trade. Conversely, during the American War of Independence, British troops in the South were badly afflicted with malaria while American soldiers suffered far less because they had long lived with the disease. Elsewhere, the haemophilia endemic in Europe’s interrelated royal families – the “curse of the Coburgs” – led to the fall of both the Spanish and Russian monarchies. Biology determines more than personal destiny.