Book review - Honey

Sport Review #298

Honey - Honey Hireme-Smiler and Suzanne McFadden

This is quite a story, beautifully told. Honey Hireme-Smiler is the girl from Putaruru who became a legendary league and rugby player, well before the re-balancing of women’s and men’s sport we’ve had in recent years.

A lot of her early sporting story is about logistics and money - endlessly driving around the Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Auckland to make teams and compete at tournaments, making national teams that never get to play a match because there are no games and bluntly turning down opportunities to play because her family can’t afford it.

Then there’s the practical, grassroots approach to training, with telephone poles, stairs and hours and hours of mentors’ time maxed out to get Honey fit enough to foot it with international team mates. It’s sobering stuff on the challenges women athletes faced and still face.

Throughout, Honey’s family and community are a big part of her story - deep connections to endless siblings, cousins, aunties and uncles and grandparents made in league clubs and pubs… no spoilers, but the stories of losing whānau and coping with health challenges very real and shocking.

Honey is one of those people who make you wonder what you do with your time - alongside her sport and now broadcasting careers, there’s her social work, work with disabled people and leading on several Boards.

If anything, her achievements on the field are downplayed - being part of league and nines internationals as well as rugby sevens and 15’s took serious juggling and negotiating between the codes, more than once playing full world cups back to back, often while coping with personal challenges and bereavement.

It’s not easy to get out of the way and let your subject’s voice come through naturally, in the same way as say Andre Agassi’s Open, Suzanne McFadden has done a fantastic job telling this story. This is highly recommended.

Thanks to Bateman Books for the chance to read and review this one!

Thanks for reading - Richard

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Recommendation 

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