C B Fry: An English Hero (Hardcover)

It would be impossible today for someone to lead such an extraordinary existence as Fry did at the turn of the last century. Just as unfeasible would be a drab account of a man who, by the end of his second year at Oxford University, had appeared in county cricket, secured two successive triple Blues, won an England cap at football and equalled the world long jump record and he was barely 21 years of age.

And yet there was much, much more to C.B. Fry. There was the intellectual, the successful journalist, the would-be politician who failed in his bid to become a Liberal MP and the frustrated Hollywood movie star.

It is in its account of his failings that Wilton sheds new light on Fry. There are the bouts of "mental illness" which surfaced many times his life and the many queries over the legality of his bowling action--neither of which had previously been the subject of genuine critical examination. Many a recollection in Fry's autobiography--including facts which all sports writers had assumed to be genuine--are revealed to be gross exaggerations.

Of greatest interest is the description of his colourful life outside sport. On a tour of South Africa, Fry recalls a dynamite blast in Johannesburg in which "one native was killed by the head of a donkey which was blown two hundred yards". Then there was the meeting with Hitler and Fry's more than passing flirtation with fascism and the straining of his friendship with Ranjitsinhji due to his growing antipathy towards Indians, a symptom of his mental illness. The best, though, is the truth behind his relationship with his wife, a battle-axe of a women called Beatrice. --Thrasy Petropolous

Review
C B Fry (1872-1956) was possibly the greatest sportsman of all time and certainly the greatest all-rounder of his own or any other age. With 12 Blues at Oxford under his belt he went on to captain England at Cricket, won international caps at soccer, played rugby for Oxford, Blackheath and the Barbarians and, at one time, also held the world long-jump record. As if that wasn't enough, he was an Oxford scholar, a novelist and aspirant MP and friend of both Max Beerbohm and Hilaire Belloc. He represented India at the League of Nations, flirted at various times with Hollywood and was offered at one point the throne of Albania. He was, in every possible way, a 'sport': decent, high-minded, public-spirited and adventurous, even though in later life he suffered much mental distress. Wilton's inspired choice of a biographical subject has paid off handsomely and he has written a riveting biography. Highly recommended. (Kirkus UK)

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