Preferred Lies: A Journey to the Heart of Scottish Golf - Softcover

Greig, Andrew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0753821567 ISBN 13: 9780753821565

Publisher: W&N, 2007

Synopsis

A book about golf that will appeal to both players and non players, by Scottish poet and novelist.

Surely golf is a game for posh people, country clubs and networking businessmen, for unfortunate sweaters, politics and trousers? Andrew Greig grew up on the East coast of Scotland, where playing golf is as natural as breathing. He sees the game as the great leveller, and has played on the Old course at St Andrews as well as on the miners' courses of Yorkshire.

He writes about the different cultural manifestations of the game, the history, the geography, the different social meanings, as well as the subjective experience, the reflections between shots. He plays alone, with friends and brothers, with ghosts. He is looking for the essence of golf, the pure heart of it, which can be found, Andrew Greig believes, on the free 9 hole course on North Ronaldsay.

About this title

Review:

Greig's purely struck prose is not the only strength of this book. For one thing he has excellent taste in golf courses. (Lawrence Donegan THE GUARDIAN)

one you should look out for is novelist Andrew Greig's PREFERRED LIES. To describe it as a tour of the Scottish golf courses is to do it a grave disservice, as it is really a book of 'life thinking. (Giles Foden CONDE NAST TRAVELLER)

If you have, or ever have had, any interest in golf, buy this book and read it. Buy it for your loved one, your lost one, the Saturday morning medal deserter . . . They and you will love it, inhabit it, and possibly be transformed by it. It's the best book about golf I've ever read. (Tom Moreton SUNDAY HERALD)

PREFERRED LIES is satisfying, demanding, allusive and provocative. I finished it not merely wishing I was as good at golf as Greig, but also as good at learning from it.¿ (Rick Gekoski SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY)

Greig....., has crafted a wonderful book about how it feels to be alive, in which the game of golf is a conduit for sensation. Here, golf isn't a metaphor for life - it is life. Sculpted in luminous prose, which echoes his work as one of Scotland's leading poets and novelists, this is a beautiful, affecting piece of work.' (Mike Aitken THE SCOTSMAN)

a wonderful and wise book, quite unlike any golfing book you will have ever read before. (Dermot Bolger THE IRISH TIMES)

Thought-provoking and moving. (Doug Johnstone THE LIST)

PREFERRED LIES feels like quite a special book. (Tom Cox THE INDEPENDENT)

Greig writes engagingly. His observations are sharp, sometimes zany. (Michael Lister THE TLS)

he does have an ear for the way people talk and express themselves on and off the course. (Ian Dunlop THE SPECTATOR)

Book Description:

A book about golf that will appeal to both players and non players, by Scottish poet and novelist.

About this edition

• Publisher: W&N
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0753821567
• ISBN 13: 9780753821565
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304