Paul Trevillion for Observer Sport 5.27pm BST Daniel Taylor wrote this splendid thing about Lionel Messi having the world at his feet, but that the problems of pressure and expectation might just scupper him, so please do read it.
"Backing off for a year or two was understandable, but to want out so badly that you'd take your own life?" After reading the piece, I remarked to my wife that Tiffany reminded me a lot of my older brother, Scott, the main subject of a memoir I was about to publish, The Splendid Things We Planned.
But the Old Testament is full of splendid things, too.
The Splendid Things We Planned, by Blake Bailey (Norton).
Sheep die mysteriously on a farm on… The Splendid Things We Planned, by Blake Bailey (Norton).
He had just turned twenty-five.… The Splendid Things We Planned, by Blake Bailey (Norton).
Ian Crouch reviewed Blake Bailey's "The Splendid Things We Planned: A Family Portrait" for Page-Turner.
But perhaps it's good to be reminded what splendid things they are.
The room had velvet curtains and a soft, soft carpet, and it was full of the most splendid things.
"The Splendid Things We Planned" isn't merely useful as a clue to a biographer's temperament; its specific story, about a family spinning out of control, naturally points to wider, shared experience, and pushes us to consider what we owe our parents, siblings, and children — and what they owe us in return.
