No 5: All That You Touch by Symon Vegro
What’s it about?
Superficially this book is about Symon Vegro, an ordinary middle-aged, middle-class Englishman who was brought up in Essex, spent his university years in Nottingham and had a crisis in the North. But there is nothing superficial, ordinary or middling about Vegro or his memoir. The book deals with his obsession with Pink Floyd, his admiration of John Keats, his love of Leicester Tigers, his quest for patterns in prime numbers and the crisis that sat, and still sits, at the centre of his life.
What’s it got to do with leisure?
The chapter on what he calls “my lovely Tigers”; the story of how he found cricket; his encounters with alcohol; the explanation of Pink Floyd’s appeal (which nonetheless still escapes this reviewer); the tales of his following the England rugby team; and the account of his relationship with bikes, cycling and the god that, for some, is Lance Armstrong.
Why should I read it?
Because man is not an island. Because you will laugh and cry however hard-bitten you think you are. Because it is written to be read rather than admired as an ‘objet’. Because there but for the grace of the divorce courts go 50% of the population. And because he wrote it, published, made it himself; independently. And someone has to explain the attraction of Pink Floyd, Leicester Rugby Club and Lance Armstrong.
the leisure manager’s library
An occasional series offering a guide to leisure-related literature
