The Power: My Autobiography

by Phil Taylor, Sid Waddell (Primary Contributor)

‘The Power’ is back. King of the oche and a legend in the game, Phil Taylor is largely responsible for taking darts into the 21st century. Recently crowned world champion for an unprecedented eleventh time, Taylor is a complete one-off – the Tiger Woods of his sport – and the most phenomenal player ever to throw a dart. Brought up in the back streets of the Potteries, where his Dad tried to turn him into a boxer, Taylor's first job saw him earning £75 a week in a factory making ceramic toilet handles – and by the age of 25 he had hardly thrown a dart in anger. Then he attended an Eric Bristow darts exhibition, and the 'Crafty Cockney' became his mentor and friend and loaned him £10,000 to play the pro circuit. Within five years Taylor had won the first of his eleven world titles … In his book, Taylor describes how Bristow coaxed, bullied, humiliated and often literally punched him into making it as a pro. He is candid about the booze culture of the game, while revisiting the memorable matches and recalling vivid stories featuring the likes of Bristow, Cliff Lazarenko (who once had 20 cans of lager before a match), John Lowe and the legendary Jocky Wilson. A dispute between the professional players and the British Darts Organisation in 1992 almost led to a dispirited Taylor giving up the game for good. And he retraces the worst six months of his life, during which time he was convicted of sexually assaulting two female fans and had his MBE rescinded. The pain for his family was hard to bear. This is a story of a man having to come to terms with unparalleled success in his professional life after a career setback that would have destroyed many others; a unique sportsman whose steely-eyed determination won him an unprecedented eleventh world title in 2004 in what many observers described as the best professional darts match in living memory.

Genres: Biography

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enjoyable read full of interesting facts about Phil "The Power" Taylor who made history in the World of Darts. I found it thoroughly easy to read and was quite surprised with the background in which he grew up which explains why Phil Taylor is a hard worker. The book captures the high's and the low's of his career. From starting off when Eric Bristow sponsoring him, winning his first World Championship, to his darkest hour when he was charged with assault and to present day. It is also interesting to learn about the dispute between the British Darts Organisation and the Professional Darts Corporation (what was formerly the WDC) and how it affected the lives of darts players on all sides. Phil covers events from some legendary matches and there are some nice stories about some of the players also. We get the run up to his televised nine dart finish and also read about Team Taylor. Overall you'll find yourself turning over the pages of this book with ease.

[Tom Cöle · Rating 3 out of 5]

As you might expect, this is - in the main - an easy-to-read account of Tayor's life and times, on and off the oche. But there's one crucial fly in the ointment preventing this from being a truly enjoyable book...

The book was ghosted by Sid Waddell, and Mr. Waddell opted to crowbar references to himself into the text at every available opportunity. On practically every page it's 'Sid said this', 'Sid said that'. And - even more unforgivably - the text breaks off at times to recount anecdotes from Sid's life that Taylor wasn't even present for!

I've heard it said before that Waddell had a gigantic ego but I never knew it was this bad. It's almost nobbled the book for me, in fact. I'm about 2/3s through it at the moment and want to hurl it aside every time I see the name 'Sid' crop up (which, alas, happens rather frequently). I can only assume Taylor didn't bother to proof-read 'his' autobiography before publication, otherwise he'd surely have objected to Sid's ceaseless self-promotion.

If you love Sid Waddell's dart commentary, by all means buy this, as Waddell spends more time recounting his own contributions to the sport than he does presenting Taylor's life story. If, however, you're not much of a fan of 'The Geordie Lip', you might want to think twice...

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read. Mr Taylor (assisted by the late and great Sid Waddell) provides a good detailing of his life. The highlights for darts fans are probably the detailed recaps of his many tournament wins.

[Grant S · Rating 2 out of 5]

Darting autobiography that fails to hit the bullseye.
I was quite disappointed with Phil's book.
It does a good job of chronicling his success on the oche, it runs through his world championship wins almost match by match, but this soon becomes fairly one dimensional.
Aided by his co author Sid Waddell Phil tries to enliven the book with stories and quips that aren't that funny and seemed quite dated and cliched to me. Okay part of the problem is this book is twenty years old and the world has moved on. Also his career had a few more years to run at the time of publication, 2003, so he was never going to be too controversial whilst still playing an active part in the sport. I'm sure a better book has or will be written now he's retired.

[Ian Fiddes · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10. Easy read autobiography from the Darts champ.