Marvellous Mania Reviewed in The Financial Times The Marvellous Mania
Review by Richard Tomkins
Published: July 28, 2007
It was not until he was 55 years old that Alistair Cooke, presenter of BBC Radio 4's Letter from America, first took up golf, but he made up for lost time by playing with a passion until well into his nineties. The Marvellous Mania conveys his obsession with the game by pulling together the best of his golf writing in 32 short essays collected from newspapers, golf magazines and other sources.
The essays contain plenty of good writing and many insights. The golfer, Cooke tells us, is "a special kind of moral realist who nips the normal romantic and idealistic yearnings in the bud by proving once or twice a week that life is unconquerable but endurable". Still, the book is mainly for Cooke-loving golf nuts; for others, it may be a bit of a snore.
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