My Double Life [9781399425162]

Overview

The colourful story of one of Britain's best loved sportsmen, and his thirty-year-long coming out journey.

If anyone was going to come out as gay at the height of their sporting career it should have been Mark Foster – a confident, laid-back guy who doesn't care what anyone thinks. So how is it that it took someone like him half a lifetime to come out?

From a Jack-the-lad from Southend being expelled from one of the most prestigious schools in the country to becoming the fastest man through water on the planet and a television favourite, Mark takes readers on a remarkable journey. He shares with us the sometimes serious and sometimes comic tactics that enabled him to live a double life for so long and convince himself he was happy doing so.

But Mark's experience, told with humour and honesty, makes us stop and reassess where we really are in terms of society's approach to homosexuality and diversity in sport.

Whether it's his intimate coming out conversations, posing naked photo for the Elton John Aids Foundation, glittering appearances on Strictly Come Dancing or breaking eight world records in an unprecedented 20 year career in the pool, Mark reveals the other worldliness of being an Olympian.

Inspiring and moving, My Double Life is the tale of one man's pursuit of sporting prowess and finding the freedom to live his truth.