Gordon Forbes

Gordon Forbes was a South African tennis player and memoirist whose writing captured the amateur circuit of the 1950s and 1960s. He represented South Africa in Davis Cup competition, reached the 1962 United States Championships quarterfinals, and won the 1955 French Championships mixed doubles title with Darlene Hard. A Handful of Summers, published in 1978, recalls that era through portraits of fellow players, changing tournaments, improvised travel, and the companionship of a comparatively small tennis world. Forbes often played doubles with his countryman Abe Segal, who appears throughout the book's social and sporting history. Tennis.com has described the memoir as a defining account of the amateur period and noted the precision and humor of Forbes's prose. He later wrote Too Soon to Panic and I’ll Take the Sunny Side, extending his reflections on the game. A Handful of Summers remains central to his reputation because it combines an elite competitor's firsthand knowledge with a writer's alertness to character, setting, and the culture surrounding play.