Book description
Dublin boxer Sparrow McCabe has the Spanish contender on the floor.
The World Featherweight title is his for the taking. But something
stops Sparrow from throwing that final punch and suddenly it's all
over. Fifteen years later Sparrow is working as a driver for the
gangster Simon Williams, trying to turn a blind eye to the scams, the
extortion rackets and the rough justice handed out by Williams and his
heavies. Then murder enters the picture and Sparrow decides to take a
stand. This is one fight he cannot lose. From Brendan O'Carroll,
author of the bestselling Mrs Brown trilogy and the BAFTA-nominated TV
series Mrs Brown's Boys.
Now author, actor/director/ script-writer, playwright, video star as
well as stand-up comic, the Brendan O'Carroll story begins very
modestly. The youngest of eleven children, Brendan O'Carroll was born in
Dublin's inner-city in 1955. His mother, Maureen was a Labour TD (MP)
and a huge influence on his life. He left school at 12 and worked as a
waiter, trying many other occupations in his spare time - disco manager,
milkman, pirate radio disc-jockey, painter-decorator etc. For a time he
ran his own bar and cabaret lounge before being persuaded to try the
comedy circuit. The gigs were small at first and even included his own
version of 'Blind Date', but word soon got round about this original and
outrageous funnyman and then there was standing-room only. The real
turning point in Brendan's career was his first appearance on The Late
Late Show, Ireland's longest-running chat show, also shown weekly on
Channel 4 in the UK. The studio audience and the viewers loved him. His
first video Live at the Tivoli went straight to No 1, knocking U2 out of
the top slot and pushing Garth Brooks to No 3. In 1994 he was voted
Ireland's No 1 Variety Entertainer at the National Entertainment Awards.
He went on to make 4 top-selling videos, and a bestselling record, as
well as touring in Ireland, the UK and the USA. The radio show Mrs
Browne's Boys, written by and starring Brendan, had a phenomenal daily
audience on 2FM and led to the creation of Agnes Browne as the central
character in Brendan's first novel, The Mammy, published in 1994. The
book topped the bestseller charts in Ireland for months and the film
rights were snapped up. The Mammy is now also available as a talking
book. The sequel to The Mammy, entitled The Chisellers, published in
1995, was also a long-running bestseller, and the final book in the
trilogy, The Granny, (1996) went straight to No 1 in the Irish
Bestseller list; the first print-run sold out immediately. Meanwhile
Brendan wrote a play, The Course, which had a five-month sell-out run in
Dublin in 1995/96 and has toured in England (London, Manchester,
Birmingham, Liverpool) and Scotland as well as in Canada. Brendan can be
seen on the big screen in the film of Roddy Doyle's The Van, in which he
plays alongside Colm Meaney of Star Trek and The Snapper fame. His
performance has been described by the critics as 'spot-on'. He also
hosts a quiz show on RTE - Hot Milk and Pepper.
