Highs, Lows & Hypos Review

Reaction to Highs, Lows and Hypos has been very good!

Both myself and Danny are humbled by the support we have received and in particular the review below by Dave Hadfield in League Weekly.

We thank editor Paul Bennett for allowing us to reprint it here.

“I have been transfixed this week by the harrowing story of one of my all-time favourite players.

“I admired Danny Sculthorpe so much because he was a player completely against the trend of his times.

“A ball-playing, chip-kicking prop forward? What would you do with one of those? Better for everyone all round to take them out and shoot them.

“Danny’s one-handed pass from boot level was one of the delights to savour in his chequered career, which is recalled in a compelling autobiography ‘Highs, lows and hypos’ with Mike Appleton, just out in Vertical Editions.

“I thought I knew his story pretty well, but I had little idea how he had suffered for his art.

“First of all, there is the litany of injuries, that particularly afflict players who are trying to play the game one way, when everybody else is trying to play it another.

“Just the list of ailments requiring surgery would fill several pages. Then there is his diabetes, which could account for a chapter of its own.

“Most of all though, there is the invisible ailment – the depression that dogged him for years and almost claimed his life.

“He was, as this relentlessly honest account confirms, in that classic position; bottle of gin in the back of the car, a fistful of pills and a few cans of beer to wash it down with.

“He doesn’t know quite what drew him back from the brink that day. Some inner strength that he didn’t know he had, perhaps.

“Since then, though, he has rebuilt his life and lent his experience to the game he loved through the State of Mind organisation. So he has what most of us crave – a role, a meaning to our lives after the final hooter sounds.

“That doesn’t mean he is out of the woods, but it does demonstrate that there is a pathway if you can find it. It should also help that his skills stood out like a beacon, even if they were not always appreciated at the time.

“It’s worth reading for all sorts of reasons, not least for its vivid portrayal of binge drinking and the Mad Monday phenomenon.

“The opportunity for a full day or more on the beer was probably the last thing that Danny Sculthorpe needed.

“Like many of the most intelligent players, he had streak of madness in his personality as well.

“His survival is, in the end, an uplifting result. Unlike his great mate, Terry Newton, he had people to talk to about the pressures he was feeling.

“His book, immaculately ghosted by Mike Appleton, takes his message to a wider audience and will do a huge amount of good.”

A great review eh? You can buy the book in my store here.