Playing The Moldovans At Tennis - Hardcover

Hawks, Tony

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0753152134 ISBN 13: 9780753152133

Publisher: Isis Large Print, 2001

Synopsis

"This is an extremely entertaining book - almost as funny as Bill Bryson's wonderfully eccentric travel books...As a bonus, there's lots of information here about tiny Moldova, stuck in there between Romania and Ukraine, but odds are most readers will be laughing too hard to take much of it in." David Pitt, BOOKLIST starred review "This is a hilarious, quirky book. As long as you don't allow yourself to get hung up by a few obscure British references, it may be one of the funniest books you have ever read. Highly recommended." Sandy Knowles, LIBRARY JOURNAL It all started in Balham. Tony Hawks and his friend Arthur Smith are watching the England football team play the little-known Eastern European state of Moldova on TV. For no reason other than sheer boredom, the pair argues about how good Tony is at tennis. A bet is made: that Tony can't beat all eleven members of the Moldovan football team at tennis. And with the loser agreeing to strip naked on Balham High Road and sing the Moldovan national anthem, it was too good to resist. Tony's attempts to persuade the football players onto the court see him being taken in by Moldovan gypsies and narrowly avoiding being kidnapped in Transnistria. It sees him smuggle his way on to the Moldovan National Team coach and witness (almost) divine intervention in the Holy Land. And, in the end, someone gets his kit off outside Woolworth on the Balham High Road.

About this title

About the Author

Tony Hawks is a London-based writer and comedian who makes regular appearances on British TV and radio. Playing the Moldovans at Tennis is his second book, and if you have not already done so, he strongly urges you to buy his first book Round Ireland With a Fridge, a surreal adventure prompted by a £100 bet. Unlike most authors, Tony has singularly failed to settle down and live in the country with a wife and four children. This, however, is his ambition.

From Publishers Weekly

The follow-up to British comedian Hawks's Round Ireland with a Fridge (a chronicle of his efforts to make good on a liquor-sodden wager to hitchhike Ireland with a refrigerator in tow) employs a similarly ridiculous premise. While watching a football game between Moldova and England, Hawks, an ex-junior-tennis-champion, and his friend argue the importance of technique in sportsmanship. The conversation culminates in a ridiculous bet; Hawks must beat the Moldovan football team at tennis, or else strip naked in a London street and sing the Moldovan anthem. What follows is an oddball travelogue spanning Moldova, Northern Ireland and Israel as Hawks tracks down and plays each team member. Hawks, who admits to knowing nothing about Moldova, offers few insights about the country; his socioeconomic and cultural observations lean toward the superficial. However, Hawks offers plenty of easy laughs (mostly at his own expense) as he brazenly and good-naturedly takes on local bureaucrats, would-be capitalists and seemingly insurmountable language barriers in pursuit of an admittedly pointless goal. "Things can be done," Hawks notes as he gears up for the journey. "The people in life who get them done are the ones who know that, and the ones who don't are the rest." Noting his reliance on the kindness of others, Hawks engages in a social experiment, demonstrating the willingness of strangers to help another achieve even the most whimsical of goals.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Isis Large Print
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0753152134
• ISBN 13: 9780753152133
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352