Heroes, Icons and Scandals

Twenty years ago, Barnet Shenkin's Playing with the Bridge Legends (Master Point Press, December 2000, now OP, ISBN 978 189415 421 5) gave its readers a fascinating insight into what it is like to play with and against the best players in the game of bridge. In some ways this book is a sequel to that one -- it focuses on the great characters in the history of bridge, both the heroes and the villains. So there are chapters on Culbertson, Belladonna, Garozzo, and Zia, as well as behind-the-scenes accounts of the cheating scandals in Stockholm, Bermuda and Buenos Aires involving Reese, Schapiro and the Italian Blue Team. Just as in his first book, the author also draws on his own experiences at the very top of the game, putting the reader at the table, and letting him find out exactly how it feels to 'play with the bridge legends'.