Latest news with #autobiography
The Independent
17 hours ago
- Health
- The Independent
David ‘Syd' Lawrence: Trailblazing England bowler dies after MND battle
David 'Syd' Lawrence, the first British-born Black cricketer to play for England, has died at the age of 61 after a battle with motor neurone disease. Lawrence took 18 wickets in five Tests for England and was a formidable fast bowler for Gloucestershire, where he claimed 625 wickets in 280 matches. His playing career was prematurely ended at 28 by a severe knee injury sustained during a Test match in 1992. After retiring, Lawrence became a competitive bodybuilder and nightclub owner, and later served as Gloucestershire County Cricket Club's first black president. He was recently awarded an MBE in the King's Birthday Honours for his services to Cricket and had published his autobiography, 'In Syd's Voice', this month.
Fox News
2 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
Ousted Dem 'super mayor' charges whopping price tag for tell-all book while dodging legal troubles
Print Close By Julia Bonavita Published June 20, 2025 The embattled former Chicago suburb "super mayor" has announced her latest business venture as her legal woes continue to pile up following a tumultuous time in office. Tiffany Henyard, the former Democratic mayor of Dolton, has announced she is peddling a "tell-all" autobiography, titled "Standing on Business." In a Facebook post, the disgraced politician vowed "the real story is coming" while sharing a link to pre-order the book - which boasts a price tag of $99 and is reportedly the first of a three-part series - from a self-publishing website. FORMER DEM 'SUPER MAYOR' PLEADS THE FIFTH AFTER FAILING TO PRODUCE PUBLIC RECORDS IN COURT "From mommy moves to making history, [Henyard] is not just showing up," she wrote. "She's standing on business." However, the former mayor's constituents appeared less than pleased, taking their opinions online to voice their skepticism of Henyard's latest business venture. "Still trying to hustle money!" one commenter said in the Dolton Politics Facebook Page. "Michelle Obama's bestseller was cheaper than this mess," another poster wrote. "The unmitigated gal!" SELF-PROCLAIMED DEMOCRATIC 'SUPER MAYOR' ORDERED TO COURT AS SCANDAL-PLAGUED TENURE UNRAVELS Henyard's attorneys did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. Henyard's announcement comes as she faces several legal woes stemming from her time as Dolton mayor and Thornton Township supervisor after her reelection bid proved unsuccessful. Earlier this month, Henyard pleaded the Fifth in a court hearing over a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit from her time at the helm. "The smear campaign against Tiffany Henyard, which began while she was in office, continues even now that she is out of office," her attorney, Beau Bridley, previously said in a statement to Fox News Digital. CRITIC OF EMBATTLED DOLTON, ILLINOIS MAYOR SEES BUSINESS DESTROYED BY 'SUSPICIOUS' FIRE: OFFICIALS Henyard was previously held in contempt of court after she failed to hand over public documents related to the lawsuit. Her attorney subsequently acknowledged the former mayor does not have the requested documents, with an Illinois judge ruling Henyard's legal team can submit an affidavit in its place. "The mayor has no document that the plaintiff seeks," Bridley said. "This matter is going to be resolved with a simple affidavit. The whole hearing was much ado about nothing." The lawsuit was initially filed by the Edgar County Watchdogs Inc. in response to the organization suing Henyard and the Village of Dolton for failing to produce financial records after the documents were requested under federal FOIA laws. 'SUPER MAYOR' TIFFANY HENYARD SKIPS DOLTON MEETINGS AS CONTROVERSIAL TENURE NEARS QUIET END "We had little doubt Ms. Henyard would use losing the election as an excuse not to produce the documents," Edward "Coach" Weinhaus, attorney for Edgar County Watchdogs, previously said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "Invoking the Fifth Amendment for a criminal investigation was an added wrinkle. The Watchdogs will keep looking for the documents even if the voters might have inadvertently thrown out the documents with the mayor." Henyard initially made national headlines in April 2024 after officials in her administration were served with subpoenas from the FBI in response to an alleged corruption investigation, FOX 32 Chicago reported. Henyard, however, was never charged. In response to the FBI's investigation, village trustees voted to hire former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightful to investigate Henyard's spending during her time as mayor, with the meeting spiraling into chaos as Henyard's supporters clashed with her opponents. SELF-PROCLAIMED DEMOCRATIC 'SUPER MAYOR' ORDERED TO COURT AS SCANDAL-PLAGUED TENURE UNRAVELS The financial probe reportedly revealed the village's bank account fell from its initial $5.6 million balance to a $3.6 million deficit. Earlier this year, Henyard subsequently lost the city's mayoral primary to Jason House, who was sworn into office in May. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP On the same day of her election loss, federal authorities slapped the Village of Dolton with a subpoena demanding records tied to a land development project allegedly tied to Henyard's boyfriend. Fox News Digital's Michael Dorgan contributed to this report. Print Close URL
The Independent
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Jeff Ross to make his Broadway debut this summer in one-man show that's far from a roast
Jeff Ross, a comedian known for hosting brutal roasts of celebrities, is coming to Broadway this summer with a one-man autobiographical show that will offer fans a softer, more intimate side. 'The hard part for me is letting go of a bit of my armor — of my roastmaster persona — and letting the audience get to me so that I can then get them,' he tells The Associated Press ahead of a formal announcement Wednesday. 'I think it's healthy to change it up and surprise people.' 'Jeff Ross: Take a Banana for the Ride' will play the Nederlander Theatre starting Aug. 5 for an eight-week engagement through Sept. 29. The show will explore Ross' close relatives, especially his grandfather on his mother's side — Ross calls him 'the hero of my childhood' — who stepped up after the comedian's parents died when he was a teenager. 'It's very autobiographical, but it's also not really about just me. It's about all of us. When I talk about my uncle or my mom, I want you to see your uncle and your mom in the stories. That's really important to me,' Ross says. 'It's very joyful. It kind of takes the stigma out of loss and sickness and lets people know that they're going to be OK no matter what happens.' The title comes from the days when Ross was living with his grandfather in New Jersey. The younger man would take his grandfather to doctor visits or visit him in the hospital during the day and at night go into New York for open-mic nights. 'My grandfather would always give me money for the bus and a banana, and he'd say, 'Take a banana for the ride.' I reluctantly took it, and more often than not, I'd be stuck in traffic, or I'd get low blood sugar, and that banana would be a lifesaver,' says Ross. 'But it was really his way of saying, 'Be ready for anything' and also, 'I can't go with you but I'm there with you in spirit.' So it was an emotional thing, it was a practical thing. It's something that I still do.' Ross is known as 'The Roastmaster General' for his incendiary takedowns of Justin Bieber, Rob Lowe, Alec Baldwin and Tom Brady, among many others. The seeds for 'Jeff Ross: Take a Banana for the Ride' were planted in the mid-1990s when Ross gathered jokes and stories about his grandfather for an hourlong set. But digging up the past proved too much. 'I couldn't sustain it emotionally. It was just too much for me as a 30-year-old guy,' Ross says. 'But now, 30 years later, I can dig in and look back and add a layer of experience over it all.' He was spurred on in large part to losing three comedic friends — Bob Saget, Gilbert Gottfried and Norm Macdonald — within eight months. 'That motivated me to look back at the old show from decades earlier and rewrite it completely for my current brain and my current skill set.' Ross will be the latest comedian to come to Broadway, following John Mulaney, Mike Birbiglia, Alex Edelman, Amy Schumer, Keegan-Michael Key, Rachel Dratch, Billy Crystal and Colin Quinn. Bill Burr made his Broadway debut this year in a revival of 'Glengarry Glen Ross.' Ross reaches back even further. His aunt took him to see Jackie Mason's 'The World According to Me!' in the 1980s, and the young comedian was floored by the comedian's captivating set. 'It was elegant, but it was also punk rock because he was being bawdy and naughty and hilarious and saying taboo things and it really, really stayed with me for a long, long time.'
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
David ‘Syd' Lawrence's brave race against time to tell his remarkable story
David Lawrence loved to dance. As a teenager he would move to northern soul, hitching his way from Gloucester to Wigan Casino, a change of clothes in the bag, life beginning at midnight. Then came his time as a powerful fast bowler with Gloucestershire, where he was bestowed the nickname Syd, his reward an England debut against Sri Lanka at Lord's in 1988. He took a five-wicket haul in August 1991 against West Indies at the Oval, the ground he had visited as a 12-year-old to see Michael Holding fly and where he recognised that this would be his calling, too. Less than six months later, playing his fifth Test, Lawrence thundered through the crease in Wellington and snapped a kneecap. A crack and haunting shriek spelled the end of his career. He was 28. There was a short-lived county comeback in 1997, and Lawrence remained a man on the move. As a hands-on nightclub owner in Bristol he would do his own doors, fitting for someone who also found joy in middle age as a bodybuilder. But horror came in June 2024 after months of uncertainty, with his legs failing him after knee replacement surgery the previous year. Lawrence was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, a terminal, unrelenting condition that leads to muscles wasting away. 'With those three words my heart hit the floor and then it seemed like my body fell with it,' he writes. The words come from his autobiography, In Syd's Voice, published this month and written with the help of Dean Wilson, previously the Daily Mirror's cricket correspondent. The pair had begun discussing a book in 2022 but the disease prompted action, with Lawrence recognising he would soon lose the ability to speak. Wilson initially wondered if Lawrence still wanted to tell his story after the diagnosis, perhaps wanting to keep his battle private. 'I was waiting to be guided by him,' says Wilson. 'I was just chatting to him as a friend, offering him some support, someone to talk to. Until we got to the point in August, maybe September where he said: 'Right, I want to do this, let's get writing, we haven't got much time anymore. I'm going to lose my voice, I know it's coming, and I want to get my story out there.' From that point on it really was a race to get it done.' The pair spoke from September through to December for the book. 'The last interview I did with him for it was early December and his voice is really, really weak, lots of gaps between words, really difficult to make out what he was saying. By that stage, I felt we'd got enough material for the book. It was getting too hard for him.' But Lawrence's voice still carries through each page. One of the first Black cricketers to play for England, he details how quickly racism entered his life and playing career. There was the banana skin left outside his hotel room door by a teammate when he was playing for Gloucestershire's second team, leading to tears, loneliness and a decision to bulk up in the gym. 'People would have to think twice about coming for me because there might just be something stronger coming back in their direction,' he writes. There was the murkiness of English cricket in the 80s as players became rebel tourists of apartheid South Africa. The touring party in early 1990 included player-manager David Graveney, who had captained Lawrence at Gloucestershire. 'He never said a word about what he was up to, which was bitterly disappointing,' writes Lawrence. 'Maybe he knew that I would have told him how awful I thought it was to try to normalise cricket in a country that wasn't normal.' The paradox is that this was the period in which Black representation within the England men's side peaked, Lawrence's international career overlapping with Devon Malcolm, Gladstone Small and Chris Lewis. 'In those days, it sort of seemed and felt quite normal,' says Wilson. 'It didn't seem like it was an unusual thing for Black people to be really successful at cricket and playing for England.' Black communities in the game would be pushed away in subsequent years, an issue that has only recently begun to attract attention and action. Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion Gloucestershire apologised to Lawrence in 2021 after he spoke about his experiences with racism, and he was named club president the following year. He was present for the county's victory at T20 Blast finals day last September, confined to his wheelchair but still part of the celebrations, tearful as James Bracey passed him the trophy, the pictures taken deeply affecting. Lawrence is vivid in describing his deterioration. The struggle to swallow, the dream he has every night about walking, how he uses his eyes to speak through a computer. He explains how time is no healer in this fight. 'I've definitely not cried over anything professionally as much as this,' says Wilson. 'Every day is a battle just to want to carry on,' says Lawrence's son, Buster, who moved his wedding forward last year so David could speak at it. 'I don't know how he does it some days but that's just him. He hasn't got much quit in him. It's sad and amazing to see the bravery he's showing.' In Syd's Voice - The Extraordinary Life of Dave Lawrence is out now and available at A minimum of £0.50, evenly split between the MND Association and the Cricketers' Trust, will be donated for every copy sold. This is an extract from the Guardian's weekly cricket email, The Spin. To subscribe, just visit this page and follow the instructions.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
David ‘Syd' Lawrence's brave race against time to tell his remarkable story
David Lawrence loved to dance. As a teenager he would move to northern soul, hitching his way from Gloucester to Wigan Casino, a change of clothes in the bag, life beginning at midnight. Then came his time as a powerful fast bowler with Gloucestershire, where he was bestowed the nickname Syd, his reward an England debut against Sri Lanka at Lord's in 1988. He took a five-wicket haul in August 1991 against West Indies at the Oval, the ground he had visited as a 12-year-old to see Michael Holding fly and where he recognised that this would be his calling, too. Less than six months later, playing his fifth Test, Lawrence thundered through the crease in Wellington and snapped a kneecap. A crack and haunting shriek spelled the end of his career. He was 28. Advertisement There was a short-lived county comeback in 1997, and Lawrence remained a man on the move. As a hands-on nightclub owner in Bristol he would do his own doors, fitting for someone who also found joy in middle age as a bodybuilder. But horror came in June 2024 after months of uncertainty, with his legs failing him after knee replacement surgery the previous year. Lawrence was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, a terminal, unrelenting condition that leads to muscles wasting away. 'With those three words my heart hit the floor and then it seemed like my body fell with it,' he writes. The words come from his autobiography, In Syd's Voice, published this month and written with the help of Dean Wilson, previously the Daily Mirror's cricket correspondent. The pair had begun discussing a book in 2022 but the disease prompted action, with Lawrence recognising he would soon lose the ability to speak. Wilson initially wondered if Lawrence still wanted to tell his story after the diagnosis, perhaps wanting to keep his battle private. 'I was waiting to be guided by him,' says Wilson. 'I was just chatting to him as a friend, offering him some support, someone to talk to. Until we got to the point in August, maybe September where he said: 'Right, I want to do this, let's get writing, we haven't got much time anymore. I'm going to lose my voice, I know it's coming, and I want to get my story out there.' From that point on it really was a race to get it done.' The pair spoke from September through to December for the book. 'The last interview I did with him for it was early December and his voice is really, really weak, lots of gaps between words, really difficult to make out what he was saying. By that stage, I felt we'd got enough material for the book. It was getting too hard for him.' With those three words my heart hit the floor and then it seemed like my body fell with it Advertisement But Lawrence's voice still carries through each page. One of the first Black cricketers to play for England, he details how quickly racism entered his life and playing career. There was the banana skin left outside his hotel room door by a teammate when he was playing for Gloucestershire's second team, leading to tears, loneliness and a decision to bulk up in the gym. 'People would have to think twice about coming for me because there might just be something stronger coming back in their direction,' he writes. There was the murkiness of English cricket in the 80s as players became rebel tourists of apartheid South Africa. The touring party in early 1990 included player-manager David Graveney, who had captained Lawrence at Gloucestershire. 'He never said a word about what he was up to, which was bitterly disappointing,' writes Lawrence. 'Maybe he knew that I would have told him how awful I thought it was to try to normalise cricket in a country that wasn't normal.' The paradox is that this was the period in which Black representation within the England men's side peaked, Lawrence's international career overlapping with Devon Malcolm, Gladstone Small and Chris Lewis. 'In those days, it sort of seemed and felt quite normal,' says Wilson. 'It didn't seem like it was an unusual thing for Black people to be really successful at cricket and playing for England.' Black communities in the game would be pushed away in subsequent years, an issue that has only recently begun to attract attention and action. Gloucestershire apologised to Lawrence in 2021 after he spoke about his experiences with racism, and he was named club president the following year. He was present for the county's victory at T20 Blast finals day last September, confined to his wheelchair but still part of the celebrations, tearful as James Bracey passed him the trophy, the pictures taken deeply affecting. Advertisement Lawrence is vivid in describing his deterioration. The struggle to swallow, the dream he has every night about walking, how he uses his eyes to speak through a computer. He explains how time is no healer in this fight. 'I've definitely not cried over anything professionally as much as this,' says Wilson. 'Every day is a battle just to want to carry on,' says Lawrence's son, Buster, who moved his wedding forward last year so David could speak at it. 'I don't know how he does it some days but that's just him. He hasn't got much quit in him. It's sad and amazing to see the bravery he's showing.' In Syd's Voice - The Extraordinary Life of Dave Lawrence is out now and available at A minimum of £0.50, evenly split between the MND Association and the Cricketers' Trust, will be donated for every copy sold. Chokers no more Thank you, Mitchell Starc. Having purchased day-four tickets for the World Test Championship final, I was beginning to consider other plans until Starc and Josh Hazlewood held on for a last-wicket stand worth 59 runs, helping drag the contest into the weekend. Sat in the Mound Stand, I won't ever forget that Saturday morning: South African supporters in every corner, their nerves spreading to Kyle Verreynne as he tried to scoop the winning runs, and the end of a decades-long narrative. You can't call them chokers anymore. Advertisement The World Test Championship remains an imperfect product with its confusing points system and imbalanced fixture list but it has now produced three different winners, two residing outside the Big Three. It also serves as a way to crown the legacies of cricketers victim to an inequitable system. Take Kagiso Rabada, undoubtedly one of the greats, but never afforded the opportunity to play a five-Test series, unable to spell his greatness out across a tour the way Jasprit Bumrah did in Australia at the turn of the year. It's also been five and half years since South Africa's last four-Test series. A grand finale offers some compensation, Rabada's nine wickets at Lord's to feature in the headlines when he eventually wraps up. Quote of the week We honour those before us, to those that are here, and to those that have come, we love you, appreciate you, and continue supporting us' – South Africa's Keshav Maharaj was very emotional in the immediate aftermath of victory. This Dale Steyn clip will leave you in bits, too. Memory lane With India due to launch England's Test summer at Headingley, let's cast back to 2014 and early exchanges of the five-Test series the hosts claimed 3-1. The standout from the drawn opener at Trent Bridge was Jimmy Anderson and Joe Root's landmark 198-run partnership, the highest for the 10th wicket in Tests. That surpassed Australia's Ashton Agar and Phil Hughes's 98 at the start of the 2013 home Ashes. Still want more? Sachin Tendulkar and Jimmy Anderson were two master craftsmen that gave more to Test cricket than most, writes Andy Bull. Advertisement The ICC is ready to back WTC four-day Tests in a boost for smaller nations, reports Matt Hughes. And Temba Bavuma's brave team made a giant leap forward for South African Test cricket with their victory against Australia, writes Andy Bull.
