Unbelievable as it may seem to my follower on here but I have just read a modern love story.
The book concerned is the quaintly titled 'Not Enough Time', written by the horse race trainer Henrietta Knight. It is her account of her relationship with the retired jockey, partially reformed alcoholic, notorious (in his day) womaniser and general all round larrikin, Terry Biddlecombe.
Known within racing as the 'odd couple', these two were devoted to each other for 20 years until Biddlecombe's death last year. In that time they trained some good racehorses, and one great one in Best Mate, 3 times successful in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
My expectations were not great for this but once I started the introduction I was hooked, reading it in one go in an 'I cannot put this down' 2 hours.I was shocked, disturbed, made to laugh out loud and almost moved to tears (I am a man so will never admit to crying).
Knight is breathtakingly honest in her description of their lives together. She had a privileged upbringing, was personal friends with the Queen Mother and is related to other members of the Royal Family. Her brother-in-law is Lord Vestey.
She had no interest in having children, and by her mid-40's relished the prospect of being a spinster, devoted to her horses, ponies and other animals. Yet for reasons she is quite unable to explain she had always 'fancied' (ok she does not quite put it like that) Terry Biddlecombe.
In his day Biddlecombe was the playboy of the racing world. Tall (for a jockey), blond, unfeasibly good looking (when young), talented and irresistible to women - once famously 'riding a treble' at Ludlow which included winning horses in the first and last race and an additional 'mount' of a farmer's daughter he met near the weighing room in between.
Inevitably, for a man of his height, Biddlecombe struggled with his weight. He kept this in check by crash dieting, sometimes losing a stone in 2 hours on the morning of a race, through a combination of Turkish baths, a heath-robinson sweat box device (you can view it on yputube) and diuretics. His only carbs were Guinness mixed with port, and washed down with champagne (kept cool in the plunge pool next to the Turkish bath).
Unsurprisingly this had a negative effect on his health, and like many top sportsmen he struggled to cope with retirement. Both his marriages ended in divorce, he saw little of his 5 children as they grew up, and his life seemed destined to end with him being a washed up alcoholic in Australia.
Biddlecombe's brother came to his rescue, helping him into rehab. Terry returned to England and was given a job with an auctioneer in the south-west of England.
It was in this capacity that Knight met him in person for only the second time, and in her words 'he took my breath away.'
She gives a frank report of the first night she slept with him. The damp horsehair mattress on his mother's bed and and the mildewed room (read it yourself if you want more detail) did not put her off him, because within weeks he had moved in with her at West Isley.
They planned to get married but this had to be postponed because Biddlecombe could not find his divorce certificate. They went ahead with an unofficial ceremony anyway, and did eventually marry 15 years later once she had tracked the divorce record down and obtained a copy of the original.
Knight has clearly used the writing of the book as part of the process of grieving, which made me feel at times as I read it that I was intruding. She does not hold back about Biddlecombe's 'difficult side'. He was jealous, possessive, swore gratuitously in all company and bought and read the Daily Sport every day (his 'porn newspaper' as Henrietta referred to it). One day when she was at the dentist he sacked all the stable staff on the spot.
She also includes searingly honest quotes from his daughters.
There are some interesting insights into their joint training methods. Knight read Seb and Peter Coe's book, 'Running for Fitness', and applied some of those successful methods to her equine athletes. Biddlecombe relied more on flair, touch and feel. Whatever it was they did together it certainly worked, and the combination attracted a host of owners from across the social spectrum at the height of their success. They included Chris Brasher, the Olympic runner, and his wife Shirley, the French open tennis champion. Most interesting of all was the Jamaican, Val McCalla, founder of the Voice newspaper. He answered an advert for owners and enjoyed considerable success with the horses that the Odd Couple trained for him.
Obviously it was my interest in horse racing that drew me to this book. I guess most of the readers up till now will come to Henrietta Knight's musings for similar reasons. But it would be a shame if it is simply seen as just another racing, or even sporting, read.
There are parts of this book which are genuinely unsettling - and not just the inclusion of a photo of a topless Henrietta posing for Terry in a poppy field! At its heart though is a wonderful love story. He obviously made her very happy, and her devoted caring for Biddlecombe in the final couple of years of his life, when he was largely incapacitated, showed how very lucky he was that she found him.
This book deserves a wider audience than just us members of the racing crowd.
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