Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Alistair Cooke

Quote by Alistair Cooke

Work

Fun & Games with Alistair Cooke: On Sport and Other Amusements

This book compiles a series of essays by Alistair Cooke, delving into the realm of sports and a variety of leisure activities. Cooke's insights and observations provide a unique perspective on the cultural significance and personal enjoyment derived from these pursuits. more

Author

Alistair Cooke
Alistair Cooke

Alistair Cooke was a distinguished British journalist, recognized for his extensive career in broadcasting. Born on November 20, 1908, Cooke spent much of his life in the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. He is best remembered for hosting the BBC Radio 4 program 'Letter from America', which ran for 58 years, making it one of the longest-running radio series in history. Cooke passed away on March 30, 2004. more

You May Also Like

“The emblem on the necktie reserved for the members of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews - The Vatican of golf - is of St. Andrew himself bearing the slatier cross on which, once he was captured at Patras, he was to be stretched before he was crucified.Only the Scots would have thought of celebrating a national game with the figure of a tortured saint.”

GamesFiguresMembersCrossesGolfAncientSaintClubsCelebrateRoyalCapturedReservedAndrewEmblemsScotsGolf ClubsNeckties
Book:Fun and Games with Alistair Cooke: On Sport and Other Amusements
Create image

“I hasten to say to snobs from the Surrey pine-and-sand country that no invention since the corn plaster or the electric toothbrush has brought greater balm to the extremities of the senior golfer than the golfmobile, a word that will have to do for want of a better.”

WantCountryGreaterGolfInventionSandElectricSeniorCornGolfersSnobExtremityPlastersToothbrushesSurrey
Book:Fun and Games with Alistair Cooke: On Sport and Other Amusements
Create image

“Sir Guy Campbell's classic account of the formation of the links, beginning with Genesis and moving step by step to the thrilling arrival of 'tilth' on the fingers of coastal land, suggests that such notable features of our planet as dinosaurs, the prairies, the Himalayas, the seagull, the female of the species herself, were accidental by-products of the Almighty's preoccupation with the creation of the Old Course at St. Andrews.”

MovingGuyCoursesStepsLandCreationPlanetsProductsFemaleAccountsGolfSpeciesFingersFeaturesClassicLinksAlmightyThrillingOur PlanetFormationNotableGenesisDinosaursArrivalsPreoccupationAndrewPrairieSeagullCoastalHimalayas
Book:Fun and Games with Alistair Cooke: On Sport and Other Amusements
Create image

“More than anything else, though, to anyone who would write about it, golf offers a four-hour drama in two acts, which becomes memorable even in the tape-recorded reminiscenses of old champs, and which - in the hands of someone like Herb Wind - can become a piece of war correspondence as artfully controlled as Alan Morehead's account of Gallipoli.”

WritingTwoWarHandsHoursPiecesFourWindDramaOffersAccountsGolfMemorableControlledTapeHerbsCorrespondenceGallipoli
Book:Fun & Games with Alistair Cooke: On Sport and Other Amusements
Create image

“For many years I had an impression of my golf swing, which was that I vividly resembled Tom Weiskopf in the takeaway and Dave Marr on the downswing. Unfortunately, there came a day when I was invited to have my golf swing filmed via a video camera. Something I will never do again. When it was played back, what I saw - what you would have seen - was not Weiskopf and Marr but a man simultaneously climbing into a sweater and falling out of a tree.”

MenYearsFallSawsTreeCamerasGolfImpressionVideoClimbingSwingsTomsInvitedSweatersDaveGolf SwingVideo CamerasTakeaways
Book:Fun and Games with Alistair Cooke: On Sport and Other Amusements
Create image

“When that happens [the demise of golf], old men will furtively beckon to their sons and, like fugitives from the guillotine recalling the elegant orgies at the court of Louis XV, will recite the glories of Portmarnock and Merion, of the Road Hole at St. Andrews, the sixth at Seminole, the eighteenth at Pebble Beach. They will take out this volume from its secret hiding place and they will say: "There is no question, son, that these were unholy places in an evil age. Unfortunately, I had a whale of a time."”

MenHappensAgeEvilSecretSonGloryCourtGolfHolesBeachOld ManHidingVolumeElegantWhalesAndrewDemisePebblesHiding PlaceGuillotinePebble Beach
Author:Alistair Cooke
Create image