Nice Jumper - Softcover

Cox, Tom

3.62

69 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0552770760 ISBN 13: 9780552770767

Publisher: Black Swan, 2003

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As a teenager in Nottingham, Tom Cox was possessed. Despite the best endeavours of his frankly rather groovy parents, nascent fashion sense and regular exposure to credible music from an early age, he was inexorably drawn into the bizarre, esoteric world that is golf, with its male-bonding rituals and strange trousers. And thus a strange hybrid was born -- from 1988 to 1995, Tom was Midlands golf's answer to Iggy Pop.

Assisted by his fellow junior members at the local club, he cut a swathe through the golfing establishment, putting dead animals in his fellow golfers' shoes, setting fire to the club professional's shop, bringing Colin Montgomerie close to tears and repeatedly wearing the wrong colour of socks. On the golf course he felt simultaneously at home and somehow alienated. But Tom also wanted to be (and became) the best, taking five years out of normal adolescent existence to live, breathe, walk and talk nothing but the sport he loved.

Nice Jumper is the story of how Tom tried to fit in, failed, got down to a handicap of two, tried to fit in again, got suspended from the club, got corrupted by rock and roll, then attempted to corrupt golf itself. Original, poignant and highly entertaining, it's a book about one teenager's obsessive attempts to attain sporting nirvana - despite the slings and arrows of outrageous fashion.

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Review:

Tom Cox's parents are worried. With good reason. At an age when most boys are doing their best to offend their elders with loud music and outrageous fashion, Tom is practising his golf swing. According to Nice Jumper Tom's universe is defined by the limits of the Cripsley Edge Golf Club, his ambitions dictated by the quest for golfing stardom. But his parents-who'd rather their son would attend protest marches than walk round in Pringle jumpers-needn't worry. Unbeknown to them, Tom is the East Midlands' enfant terrible of golf. A rebel genius, whose socks are never quite the right shade to satisfy the Captain, and whose triumphs on the fairway are matched by the wickedness of his deeds in the back room of the Golf Shop. Freak fires, dead rodents in shoes and random outbreaks of nudity are Tom's trademarks. But how long can Tom spread anarchy in this staid world before he is corrupted himself? Can he achieve the perfect shot, before his heart is claimed by more conventional pursuits, like girls and rock and roll?

This is a hugely funny, real-life tale of teenage obsession, made all the more unique for being about a subject few people can discuss without yawning. If you share even a tenth of Tom's passion for golf, you will want to preserve this book in a glass case. Unfortunately if you don't, you might come to the conclusion--rather like Tom himself--that there are better things you could be doing with your life. --Matthew Baylis

Review:

"At last a book about growing up populated by characters who aren't entirely hateful. In fact Nice Jumper is knitted with real warmth and passion, my two favourite things apart from wanking and Bowie. And the golf stuff isn't a problem" (Adam Buxton from The Adam and Joe Show)

"'Hilarious...Lashings of insight, sarcasm and slapstick. Fore!'" (James Brown Jack)

"'The only book I have ever read, and probably the only one I ever will read, about golf. But certainly not the only book I will ever read by Tom Cox. Nice Jumper is Catcher In The Rye meets Caddyshack'" (Julie Burchill)

"'Does for golf what Fever Pitch did for football...Funny, clever and all-too-horribly true'" (William Boyd)

"'As Frank Sinatra would sing, Nice Jumper goes "Straight down the middle". How can a book about teenage boys, golf and Nottingham in the eighties be this good?"" (Caitlin Moran The Times)

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