Alex Higgins was a showman, gambler, comedian, bully, charmer and alcoholic. His antics - and ferocious temper - were legendary, yet he was loved by millions.

Born on a council estate in Belfast, Alex Higgins left school at 15. At 17 he won the Northern Ireland and All Ireland snooker championships, and turned professional when he was 20. In 1972, aged just 23, he became the youngest person ever to win the world championship. He triumphed again in an emotional final ten years later, in the process becoming the biggest box-office draw the game has ever known. But by the end of his tumultuous life he was reduced to surviving by playing £10 snooker matches in pubs.

Bill Borrows vividly reconstructs the terrifying rollercoaster ride that was Higgins' life. Outrageous, gripping and emotionally wrenching, this is the definitive account of one of the most charismatic and self-destructive men in British sport.