Alone: The Triumph and Tragedy of John CurryThe previously-untold story of the life and tragic early death of John Curry, one of the most famous ice skaters in history. The book that inspired new film The Ice King, the story of John Curry's life. One winter's night in 1976, over 20 million people in Britain watched John Curry skate to Olympic gold on an ice rink in Austria. Many millions more watched around the world. Overnight he became one of the most famous men on the planet. He was awarded an OBE. He was chosen as BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Curry changed ice skating from marginal sport to high art. And yet the man was a mystery to a world that had been dazzled by his gift. Surely, men's skating was supposed to be Cossack-muscular, not sensual and ambiguous like this? Curry himself was a complex, tortured man. For the first time, Alone untangles the extraordinary web of his toxic, troubled, brilliant and short life. It is a story of childhood nightmares, furious ambition, sporting genius, lifelong rivalries, homophobia, Cold War politics, financial ruin and deep personal tragedy. So much more than a sports biography, Alone reveals the restless, impatient, often dark soul of a man whose words could lacerate, whose skating invariably moved audiences to tears, and who after succumbing to AIDS, as so many of his fellow artists and friends did, died of a heart attack aged just 44. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Two Forbidden fruit | 32 |
Three For the Morons | 62 |
Four The Hermit of Denver | 93 |
Five That Olympic business | 121 |
Six The fairy for the tree | 149 |
Seven Dangerous appetites | 180 |
Eight Daddy says no | 213 |
Nine With an angel | 237 |
Ten Moving on air | 260 |
Eleven Silently the senses | 289 |
Twelve The kiss of the sun | 320 |
Acknowledgements | 333 |
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Alan Bates Alison Smith Andrew Arnold Gerschwiler artistic audience ballet beautiful British Carlo Fassi Cathy Foulkes champion Championships choreographer Christmas Clairmont and Spungen coach competition Curry’s dance Davos didn’t Dorothy Hamill Elva everything father feel felt Fire Island friends Gerschwiler Gillian Lynne Haig Oundjian Harbord he’d Heinz Wirz homosexual Ice Rink Innsbruck John Curry John’s JoJo Starbuck Joseph judges Julian Pettifer jump knew Kossi Larry Parnes later letter living London looked Lori Nichol Lorna Brown Manhattan medal months mother Nancy Streeter never night Olympic once Palladium Patricia Dodd Penny Malec performance Pettifer programme recalls rehearsals remembers Rita Rita’s Robin Cousins Ron Alexander says school figures seemed skating Sky Rink Solihull someone sport summer talk television theatre There’s things thought told Nancy Toller Cranston tour Vail wanted watch weeks who’d winter York