{"product_id":"9780349139845","title":"Amazing Grace : The Man Who was W.G.","description":"\u003cp\u003e Author(s): Tomlinson, Richard \u003cbr\u003e Binding: Paperback, \u003cbr\u003e Date of Publication: 05\/05\/2016,\u003cbr\u003e Pagination: 480 pages, 16pp colour and b\/w,\u003cbr\u003e ISBN13\\EAN\\SKU: 9780349139845,\u003cbr\u003e Description: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn a sunny afternoon in May 1868, nineteen-year-old Gilbert Grace stood in a Wiltshire field, wondering why he was playing cricket against the Great Western Railway Club. A batting genius, 'W. G.' should have been starring at Lord's in the grand opening match of the season. But MCC did not want to elect this humble son of a provincial doctor. W. G's career was faltering before it had barely begun.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGrace finally forced his way into MCC and over the next three decades, millions came to watch him - not just at Lord's, but across the British Empire and beyond. Only W. G. could boast a fan base that stretched from an American Civil War general and the Prince of Wales's mistress to the children who fingered his coat-tails as he walked down the street, just to say 'I touched him'.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe public never knew the darker story behind W. G.'s triumphal progress.  Accused of avarice, W. G. was married to the daughter of a bankrupt. Disparaged as a simpleton, his subversive mind recast how to play sport - thrillingly hard, pushing the rules, beating his opponents his own way.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn Amazing Grace, Richard Tomlinson unearths a life lived so far ahead of his times that W. G. is still misunderstood today. For the first time, Tomlinson delves into long-buried archives in England and Australia to reveal the real W. G: a self-made, self-destructive genius, at odds with the world and himself.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Griffin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43697291165740,"sku":"9780349139845","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0379\/1365\/7388\/files\/9780349139845_6158c59e-c9f2-4cb9-a559-e8737084f545.jpg?v=1759662745","url":"https:\/\/www.griffinbooksonline.co.uk\/products\/9780349139845","provider":"Griffin Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}