Staying Power: A Year In My Life

by Phil Taylor

Phil "The Power" Taylor is the uncontested king of darts, his 16 world championship titles between 1990 and 2013 far outclassing anything else the game has seen. He started out as a protégé of Eric Bristow, the Crafty Cockney, having wandered into his Burslem pub with a set of darts his wife had given him for his birthday. At that time Taylor was earning £52 a week working in a ceramics factory and hardly played. But jaws dropped and pint mugs tipped over as this newcomer suddenly unleashed a gift for flight that had soon eclipsed even the Crafty Cockney himself, and amassed Phil a haul of over 200 professional tournament victories. Staying Power is a year in the life of a legend, twice nominated for BBC Sports Personality of the Year, a man who made darts look a doddle to British pub-goers everywhere and set his seal on the game as the bloke to beat. A year of triumph and disaster, in which Taylor crashed out of the world championship in the second round to young outsider Michael Smith and fell asleep at home on Christmas day, exhausted from the strain of constant winning. A year when he played arguably the greatest ever game of darts, in the Grand Slam semi-final against recent world champion Adrian Lewis the two slugging it out to the wire. A year in which Taylor rocked Australia, fêted like royalty. A year of spats and hecklers, clashes on stage and off, of head-to-heads with the Dutch superstar Michael van Gerwen. But most of all this is a year in which Phil Taylor, one of sport's greatest champions, has looked hard at his life in his determination to stay in power.

Genres: Sports

400 pages, Paperback

First published October 23, 2014

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I much preferred 'Staying Power' to Phil's first book written in 2003. This one is engaging, very well-written and has tons of information on all the current top darts players and tournaments. It's excellent for referring back to if you want to find out more about a particular area of the sport, which I've done many times. Contrary to widely-spread rumours, Phil strikes me as a genuinely nice man with great respect for his fellow darts players. You wouldn't even have to be a fan of Phil to appreciate and enjoy this book, in my opinion it's a must-read for any darts fan. Hugely satisfying ending too. 5/5.

[Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book and met the man himself in 2014 and have been meaning to read it ever since. My dad recently passed away and he was a big Phil Taylor fan and so I decided to finally give it a read in his memory. I’m glad I did. I really got into reliving some of his most epic matches in his own words. I will definitely be on the hunt for footage of his old matches to relive them some more!

[Mike]

A great book about darts and Phil's personal life.

[Steven Maidment · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a brilliant read! Darts fan? Read this it's a shame I didn't read it sooner

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not really a Fan of his but did enjoy this book a year in his life some bits were hard to get into but that could just be me.

[Ben DT Reid · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was more of a fascinating read than I thought it would be. As it wasn’t an autobiography of such and more a ‘year in the life’ of the great Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor’s I didn’t expect much life stories and more a breakdown of his games and tournaments for the year. How wrong I would be here. It’s absolutely fantastic. While it does take you from tournament to tournament during the course of a year, it’s broken up with flashback stories and accounts of his life.

He goes into great detail of his life from a young lad, to Bristow’s protégés and all the way to 16-time World Champion. The way he talks you through his biggest and best games is really good. You feel like you’re watching the game in the book. He brings the words to life. I was never a huge Taylor fan. I used to always see him as a cocky old-timer (I only really got into darts around 2012).

By the time I did, Michael Van Gerwen (MVG) was on top. He was my guy. I would cheer on MVG and hate Taylor. Reading this book really opened my eyes to his struggles and how much overcome during this period of his life to stay within touching distance of the young MVG. Taylor truly is the greatest darts player of all time and this book has made me see him in a completely different light. It’s a much read and a really fantastic one for all sports fans.

[Russell Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read which I managed to blast through pretty quickly. Nothing earth shattering, but well worth a read if you have an interest in darts. He tries to come across as a nice man, and plays the ‘old’ 53 year old granddad card very well, but it is easy to see that behind this is a man with great steel and determination. It was certainly interesting reading Phil’s views on his fellow competitors – Adrian Lewis, Michael van Gerwin, Barney, James Wade and the like. Not too much in the way of controversy, although he does like to put his side of the story to the various headlines he has been involved in. It was a nice touch letting his mum write a few pages on her views on her son – as you can imagine she had lots of good things to say. All-in-all nothing too taxing and an enjoyable read.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty decent account of exactly what it says in the title - the difficult year in Phil Taylor's career.

It's not a stellar read and there's no sensational writing in it but it's interesting enough. However, I do have to say that the arrogance of the man is evident throughout. This is not a criticism as, after all, it is an autobiography and all the great sportsmen have that trait. I don't really have much more to say about the book!

[Glenn Keenan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book showcasing the highs and lows of a legendary darts player over a 12 month period in 2013-14 and giving an insight into his personal life.