It is hard to believe the portly, scowling child gracing the front of Fatty Batter could possibly grow up to star in a West End musical.

But improbably, the cover shows the young Michael Simkins, Rada-trained Brighton actor and hit author.

Mr Simkins, who has recently reprised his role as dashing lawyer Billy Flynn in hit musical, Chicago, has penned a second volume of his childhood memories, this time, focusing on his life-long obsession with cricket.

And, last night, he returned to his home town to sign copies of his latest tome.

He told the Argus, the book: "It comes under the general heading of what I believe is called loser-lit.

"It's about growing up in a sweetshop, being a very fat kid, useless at games, and how cricket and chocolate provides a refuge."

The book charts the journey of a chubby schoolboy, miserably keeping goal at Middle Street Junior School, to a slightly less chubby, middle aged man struggling to stop his cricket obsession ruining his life.

He said: "I'm afraid it's all rather self deprecating - that's what I'm known for. I tend to write about my crises rather than my triumphs."

The book begins with a snapshot of the author as a boy with "plastered-down hair and scarlet cheeks - the one with the chafe marks on the inside of his thighs, with knee caps the colour of self-raising flour" and follows him as he battles to win a place on the nets at Brighton Boy's Grammar School.

The narrative finally finds him leading a motley first 11 of fellow mid life cricket dreamers.

He charts the high and lowlights of his growing "obsession" which include playing with his Owzat dice game, alone in his bedroom, and seeing Sussex for the first time with his brothers, and tailing England at Lord's.

Michael grew up in his father's sweetshop, behind Brighton seafront, where his bedroom was just a few tantalizing steps from the sugary stock.

He said: "Everyone thought it was a paradise but there was a price. I was the size of a house.

"Cricket is the only sport that fat kids could play, and I was fat. Hugely fat, in fact."

The actor, who worked as a cricket commentator for three years, giving ball-by-ball accounts of games for sports phone-in channels, said: "I had a great time going to all the games, getting £60 a day and then dashing off to do a show."

But the then jobbing actor soon discovered a dark side to being paid to watch the sport he loved.

He said: "Once you've sold your soul, you have to watch every ball whether you like it or not.

"And you must find something to say about it. You can't just doze off or pop to the local charity shop on the high street."

When Mr Simkins, who later played opposite Michael Gambon in Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge, started work as an actor, cricket became "my constant companion during long seasons in rented digs".

He has come a long way since the time when he stood in the rain, missing ball after ball for his grammar school team.

But the actor remains as self-deprecating as he would have his reader believe. Taking time out from his punishing rehearsal schedule for Chicago, he said: "Being back as Billy Flynn is a tough squeeze. It's coming back to me very slowly. I'm hoping it will be more like a reflex before too long."