David Beckham: My Side - The Autobiography

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David Beckham, Tom Watt

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Pages: 404 (Hardcover)

ISBN: 0007157320

Pub: CollinsWillow, London

Pub date: 2003-09-12

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 127079

Editorial Review:

Arguably the most recognised sportsman in the world, ever, David Beckham, at 28, has weathered several lifetimes' worth of speculation, rumours, adoration and insults--and now he claims to be setting the record straight. Beckham has been at the heart of some of the biggest stories in British football for a decade or more, and it's all here including: kung-fu Cantona; scoring from the halfway line; that Champions League Final; 1998 World Cup disgrace; 2002 World Cup glory; feuding with Fergie and the boot in the face; right through to entering the pantheon at Real Madrid in 2003. My Side fairly roars along from one headline-grabbing incident to another. Of course Beckham's passion for his game, and the challenges of preparation and performance, is the driving force behind the narrative, but we are rarely allowed to lose sight of the celebrity bubble in which ol' Golden Balls exists, as one half of Britain's other Royal family. At which point a souring note of reality must be introduced into this tell-it-like-it-was memoir. The problem is that we know Beckham so well. He is well established as a charming, courteous interviewee, for whom an inevitable and growing PR savvy has tightened his tongue, though not dimmed a natural warmth and enthusiasm, but he's equally well known to be, (how to put it?), not great with words. The bald fact is that, in public at least, Beckham has never uttered a single sentence half as vivid or coherent as those in My Side the voice with which we are all so familiar is entirely absent. Good thing too perhaps--400-odd pages full of "er" and "kinda like" would grate--but the polish that collaborator Tom Watts applies does lend this first-person narrative an air or unreality that some readers will find hard to disperse. That said, the result is a fluid, readable and hugely entertaining stroll through an extraordinary life, with a genuine sense of intimacy, a generous spread of colour photos, and some intelligent things to say about football and celebrity, despite the reservations about diluting the Beckham "essence". --Alex Hankin

Reader Reviews:

A legend (1/1 people found this helpful)

David Beckham makes you proud to be British. He is not ashamed to be a gay icon, worked with Kick Out Racism campaigns and is a very modest man.

Paul Wellings author of 'Spend It Like Beckham'

The Garry Bushell of Football (1/1 people found this helpful)

This is the best biog I have read since Bushell Off The Box by Garry Johnson.
Becks and Bushell both have a lot in common - crewcuts, good looks and both are East End boys done good.
Garry Bushell discovered The Cockney Rejects and this book Beckham claims they are his favourite rock band.
Spooky or what?
Beckham has just won his 100th cap and I for one hopes he goes onto to many more.
He has tried modelling and now I hear he is going to try acting - he was according to this book encouraged by his Hollywood pal Tom Cruise. And rumour has it Becks has a small part in the Robbie Williams movie Till Death Us Do Part - the film version of the East End gangster novel by Garry Jackson.
A brilliant book that moved me and came close to taking over from The Story of Oi by Garry Johnson as my all-time favourite book.

For showbiz fans, not football fans (0/0 people found this helpful)

An awful football autobiography written by someone who has written more books than he's read. And I'm a United fan.

So David, after "Daddy's great night" (Page 360), when we went out of Europe to Madrid, but YOU scored twice, how do you feel now?

More showbiz ra-ra than technical information on how the game is played, how Beckham prepares for matches, how he practises and trains.
In summary, a book for showbiz fans, not football fans.

"Liar 23" is the sobriquet applied to Beckham by some Reds.
I don't agree with that, I try and remember the happy times we had when I used to watch your Dad and Mum at away games with your sister. Before you married "her". Shame you forgot to invite your Dad (who put in so much time for your Junior career) to your signing ceremony for Madrid. But you didn't mention that - and a lot more. Anything else I write is libellous!

Said enough. Don't waste your money. Unless you're a woman.
He'll be available soon, I promise...

Incredible (0/0 people found this helpful)

This has to go down as one of the greatest crime capers ever! We meet Beckham the boy, before he is sullied by the world of crime for which we all now know him so well. The story begins slowly with little indication of the criminal mastermind that is about to be unveiled.
It's only in chapter 2 that it bursts into action. Befriending a starving mong who he calls Victoria, but who has since been unveiled to be the notoriously cruel and evil 'Posh', the Beckham legacy begins. He recounts tales of his money laundering, squandering his new found cash on frivellous cars and clothes. As his reputation grows he admits with no shame or regret how he laundered money out of over 65,000 people every week! He marries the starving mong, but not before cajoling the world's press into paying for the extravagent affair, all the while blaming any slights on his reputation on the eqaually evil and mad genius, Sir Alex Ferguson.
This rip snorter of a story take us all around Europe, and then the world. The Beckham empire grows with every kick of the ball, belitteling the merits of eduction and lauding flagrant amoral egomania.
Finally, this, presumably the first in a long line of Beckham thrillers, takes us to Spain, where the evil Beckhams fall under the influence of the infamous Gallaticos.
What will happen next? Will he shag that attractive brunette? Will he get a game at all? And how will Victoria cope in a world where no one speaks proper?
Compelling and brilliant.

Started well... (0/0 people found this helpful)

First of all this book only has two stars coz of the begginning
the rest is trash.
It's not actully written by him, so i dont see what all the hype is about reely.
The Writer is called tom sumfing
its a good book - in the first bit, but then it creeps down into nothingness and becomes VERY boring.
Dont buy it
Thanks for reading

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