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Golden Boy Christian Ryan

Golden Boy By Christian Ryan

Golden Boy by Christian Ryan


€11.99
Condition - Very Good
10 in stock

Summary

Voted Cricket Book of the Year at the 2010 British Sports Book Awards, Golden Boy is a blistering expose of the tumultuous Lillee/Marsh/Chappells era of Australian cricket, as viewed through the lens of flawed genius Kim Hughes.

Golden Boy Summary

Golden Boy: Kim Hughes and the bad old days of Australian cricket by Christian Ryan

**Voted Wisden Cricket Monthly's best cricket book ever in 2019**
WINNER, BEST CRICKET BOOK, BRITISH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2010
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Golden Boy is a blistering expose of the tumultuous Lillee/Marsh/Chappells era of Australian cricket, as viewed through the lens of flawed genius Kim Hughes.
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Kim Hughes was one of the most majestic and daring batsmen to play for Australia in the last 40 years. Golden curled and boyishly handsome, his rise and fall as captain and player is unparalleled in cricketing history. He played several innings that count as all-time classics, but it's his tearful resignation from the captaincy that is remembered.

Insecure but arrogant, abrasive but charming; in Hughes' character were the seeds of his own destruction. Yet was Hughes' fall partly due to those around him, men who are themselves legends in Australia's cricketing history? Lillee, Marsh, the Chappells, all had their agendas, all were unhappy with his selection and performance as captain - evidenced by Dennis Lillee's tendency to aim bouncers relentlessly at Hughes' head during net practice.

Hughes' arrival on the Test scene coincided with the most turbulent time Australian cricket has ever seen - first Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket, then the rebel tours to South Africa. Both had dramatic effects on Hughes' career. As he traces the high points and the low, Christian Ryan sheds new and fascinating light on the cricket - and the cricketers - of the times.

Golden Boy Reviews

Christian Ryan's Golden Boy has this brawny lyricism ... It's really alive, that book. Like a great Australian novel. Hughes personifies something mercurial, ethereal, this artistic flair alongside these macho, rugged, brawny bruisers like Marsh and Lillee. It's told with such lyricism and tempo. I found it absolutely enthralling and a real revelation. -- William Fiennes, member of Wisden Cricket Monthly's Best Cricket Book Ever judging panel
At once unputdownable and also unpickupable, because if you pick it up you will eventually finish it, and what are you going to do then? -- Rob Smyth * Guardian *
It made me laugh, it told me things, it reminded me why I love the subject I'm reading about and it put a series of images in my head that I won't ever forget. It's audacious, it's got chutzpah, it's done with a lyrical flourish. I didn't know cricket books could be written like this. -- Phil Walker, editor of Wisden Cricket Monthly
A cracking read ... An almost tragic but compelling tale of how Hughes tried hard - and failed - to fit his smiling personality into the hard-faced world of his country's uniquely macho and badly moustached team. * The Observer *
Graphic ... Shocking ... Devastating ... If half of what we read here is true, two Australian legends should hang their heads in shame. -- Simon Wilde * The Times *
A valuable archive of the professional cricketer's lot during the 1980s - paltry wages, petty officials, vermin-infested hotels and astonishing levels of alcohol consumption ... a fascinating account of Australian cricket's leanest years. * Times Literary Supplement *
Absolutely superb, one of the best cricket books I've read. -- John Stern * The Wisden Cricketer *

About Christian Ryan

Christian Ryan is also the author of Feeling is the Thing that Happens in 1000th of a Second. His essays - appearing in Wisden, The Nightwatchman and The Cricket Monthly - include 'Blew', 'Two Thursdays', 'The Thirty-Ninth Summer of DK Lillee', 'The Unremembered Six', 'Abbamania' and 'Jeff Thomson is Annoyed'. He edited and assembled the literary/photographic cultural sweeps Rock Country and Australia: Story of a Cricket Country. He lives in Melbourne.

Additional information

GOR004495937
9781742374635
1742374638
Golden Boy: Kim Hughes and the bad old days of Australian cricket by Christian Ryan
Used - Very Good
Paperback
Allen & Unwin
20100923
448
Winner of Winner 2019 Winner of Winner 2019
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - Golden Boy