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There are all sorts of books telling you how to be a success. My Brilliant Career takes it from the top. Twelve exceptionally high achievers explain how they did it. Their names are an eclectic roll of honour: Robin Smith, Roger Black, Sebastian Coe and Michael Lynagh from high-profile sports; Nicola Horlick, Harvey Goldsmith and Ken Bates from contrasting areas of business; Sir Chay Blyth and Tony Bullimore, among the world's best-known yachtsmen; Michael Parkinson and Tony Robinson from show business, and top chef Raymond Blanc. It's a promising concept: go to people who have made it big and learn from them. The plus is that you get insights into a dozen remarkable characters as you read, and all sorts of enlightening and/or amusing anecdotes, from Robin Smith's father getting him up at 4.30 every morning to practise to Michael Parkinson being told he had to interview Billy Connolly by a Glasgow taxi driver, who stopped the cab and bought him a tape of the Big Yin to prove the point. The down side is that the book has been spliced together from 12 separate interviews, making it disjointed at times (with a few annoying places where the editing can't cover the gaps). That said, overall it's very well organised, dealing one by one with each of the factors that make for high achievement. First comes natural talent (can't do without it, alas), then parental and other childhood influences, capacity to learn and improve, teamwork, other people, luck and getting through setbacks. The book ends by looking at the positives and the negatives of success. The reader is given a lot of different angles from which to analyse his or her own character and career. --David Pickering
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