PENGUIN The Test: My Autobiography

This is an interesting read and great if you are interested in rugby (particularly Irish rugby) or sport generally. Recommended.

I am a huge fan of sports books, particularly GAA, rugby and soccer and I have read a vast number of them. This book was a disappointment. The writing was on the wall when Paul Kimmage walked. Alarm bells triggered in my mind when O'Driscoll himself made the Enid Blyton reference. The Sunday Times extracts were far from inspiring. Alan English to his credit has a proven pedigree as an author but a man can only make a cake with the ingredients at his disposal. O'Driscoll simply did not supply the ingredients.Even for issues that seem unbecoming of O'Driscoll such as the US arrest, it feels as though he is making a mountain out of a molehill. This book needed honesty in the form of his real sore feelings about managements, about players etc. Perhaps O'Driscoll chose to release this book to limit the possibility of other non-official biographies and the intent was never to rock the boat. However in a week when I also read the autobiographies of Zlatan, Roy Keane and Anthony Daly, I felt that this book lacked cutting edge. In fact it lacked blunt edge.He will sell just as many books on name alone, with or without substance, so I guess he opted for the easy life with no recriminations. Best of luck to him, and fair play to him, he had a top class career, but unfortunately in my opinion he has not written a top class autobiography. Granted the stiff competition this winter from a range of top class sporting books has raised the bar in terms of comparable measures and expectations. Perhaps in another year, he may have been top of the pile, but in 2014 within the genre of Irish sporting books there are a number of better books out there. One thing in his favour is that purely within the context or rugby, there isn't much competition this winter, outside of Peter Clohessy's book so O'Driscoll's will stand out within that sector.Worth a read for certain, but not at the expense of other great books out there this winter. As a book that had so much potential, it could have been so much more. As a reader, I have to respect the wish of one of our greatest sportsmen to keep the curtains closed. However the name Brian O'Driscoll alone will ensure that this book will outsell greater sports books, and feature in many 2014 Xmas stockings.

I really enjoyed this book and could almost palpate the emotion of the situations described on and off the pitch. I found Brian’s insecurity at various stages of his career surprising, although I guess that his drive for perfection helped him in some way on the road to becoming such a great player. The book is certainly inspiring and I will encourage my children to read it. I have to say though, that if either of my lads made it half as far, I would encourage less partying along the way! Brian O’Driscoll was certainly a great player and a joy to watch on the field. As an Englishman however, I was not too unhappy when he hung up his boots for Ireland. The book is a great read and I recommend it highly.

A good overall read-bit disappointed more detail wasn't given around the whole "LIONS DROPPING " as this was in my view the main focus of the book?? Overall good but more as every rugby fan would appreciate is the class and proud player odriscoll was throughout his whole career!

This was a good autobiography but it's really for rugby fans as it's packed full of rugby knowledge