Barry Hearn and the Re-Issue of 1st Snooker Book
The re-issue of Pocket Money, a ground breaking snooker book first published in 1982, is an opportunity to look back at Barry Hearn, the legendary snooker manager who turned Steve Davis into a huge international star.
Pocket Money was the first book that documented the era now known as the golden age of snooker. Started out in the 1970s with the BBC's Pot Black and continued until the mid 1990s, the peak of snooker phenomenon is recognized with the 1985 World Snooker Championship battle between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis.
Pocket Money authored by Gordon Burn and was first published in 1986, tells the story of this stormy period in snooker history. Burn chooses to focus on one snooker persona and not necessarily a snooker player. Barry Hearn was the first to recognize the golden eggs laying potential that lies in the combination between the snooker players stardom and the public's growing admiration.
By that time, Paul Hunter has become a rising star in the snooker world. He was ranked number 4, his colleagues spoke greatly of his sportsmanship and his televised matches drew more viewers than any other snooker event.
Barry Hearn gathered a group of the most popular and ambitious snooker players of those days and flew them away from the boundaries of the United Kingdom to exhibit their snooker capabilities worldwide. Steve Davis, Dennis Taylor and Terry Griffiths were the biggest stars in Hearn's delegation. Yet, the UK public remained fascinated by the blows and whistles of snooker bad boys who kept the tabloids on guard by turning their public appearances and private lives into a spectacle.
When read with the two decades perspective, Pocket Money is a dazzling documentation of an era that can never be restored. Nowadays, when the pro snooker circuit is dominated by lean, clean and wholesome sports people, (with the exception of Ronnie O'Sullivan who occasionally manages to jump the governing body to apologize on his behalf), Pocket Money really makes you sorry you weren't grownup enough to witnessing snooker in the 1980s with your own eyes.