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Product Description
W. G. Grace burst onto the cricket scene in the 1860s with spectacular force. He dominated the game until the end of the century, and influences it to this day. He was the world's first sporting superstar, rivalled as a public figure only by Gladstone and Queen Victoria herself. His staggering achievements as both batsman and bowler made him the greatest draw cricket had ever known. Though often depicted as an overgrown schoolboy, W. G. was extremely shrewd and ruthlessly exploited the power his immense popularity gave him. A notorious 'shamateur', he amassed great wealth through cricket, while remaining the standard-bearer for the Gentlemen against the Players for forty years. Researched in archives from Grimsby (where Grace once scored 400) to Australia, Simon Rae's new biography offers a radical analysis of Grace's career, and reviews the more controversial aspects of his conduct, including verbal and physical altercations, both on and off the field, and his kidnapping of an Australian cricketer from Lord's. But W. G. Grace: A Life provides more than a fresh look at the cricketer. It focuses on Grace's formative family background; his intensely competitive relations with his two famous brothers, 'E. M.' and Fred; his career as a doctor, and his ambitions and bereavements as a father. Drawing on little-known diaries and letters, and unique access to Grace's own library, Simon Rae builds up a convincing psychological portrait of the man behind the most famous beard in English history.
About the Author
Simon Rae's award-winning W. G. Grace: A Life received widespread acclaim on its publication in 1998. He has also edited a number of anthologies, and for five years presented BBC Radio 4's 'Poetry Please!'. For nearly ten years he wrote regular topical poems for the Guardian and published two collections of them, Soft Targets and Rapid Response. He collaborated with Ronald Searle on a book of cartoons and poems, The Face of War, and in 1999 he won the National Poetry Prize. His first stage play, A Quiet Night In, was produced in Bristol and London the same year. In 1999/2000 he was poet in residence with Warwickshire County Cricket Club and MAC at Edgbaston, and he was Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Warwick University for 2000/2001.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Victorian values laid bare,
By Wowbagger the Infinite (Somerset, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: W. G. Grace: A Life (Paperback)
Immensely well written and thoroughly researched, this paints a warts and all picture of W G Grace. A prodigously talented cricketer, he was also a very obvious "shamateur" - a supposed amateur making a very healthy living from the game of cricket, as well as someone who would go to almost any lengths to win a match, including if not exactly breaking the rules then certainly bending them in the extreme. As an Essex ex-patriate one of my favourite sections is where Grace and his Gloucestershire team take on Essex at Leyton. Grace makes a big mistake in offending Essex's volatile and dangerous fast bowler Charles Kortright by referring to the Essex team as "rabbits ready to put back in the hutch". Kortright works Grace over a treat, peppering him with short balls and clearly getting him LBW and caught behind during one aggressive over, and yet even then Grace's reputation saves him as he glowers at the umpire and intimidates him into not giving him out. Finally Kortright rips another one through Grace's defence and removes two stumps from the ground. Grace stood his ground for a second, then walks off in a foul mood - to be accompanied by one of the earliest and best recorded bits of sledging from Kortright who exclaims "surely you're not going, Doctor? One of the stumps is still standing."
A sheer joy for any true cricket fan and the typically well presented and researched figure work of Bill Frindall is a joy to go through.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A biography of grace!,
By
This review is from: W. G. Grace: A Life (Paperback)
As a cricket fan I'd obviously heard of WG Grace but had never read anything about him or realised exactly why he is such an icon.
This book takes an in depth look at his cricketing career and demonstrates why he was the second most famous English citizen of the Victorian era, the most famous being Queen Vicky herself. It is clear that WG loved the game at all levels and was a true master, piling up runs, taking hundreds of wickets and breaking all sorts of records. It also highlights certain tragedies in his life, notably the untimely deaths of members of his family and offspring. The only criticism I have of the book is that I would have liked to have known more about WG outside of cricket, his work as a doctor as well as his family life but that's only a small gripe as I thoroughly enjoyed this book and reccomend it for anyone who loves the game of cricket.
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