Tom Wills

SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY AWARD

This is the story of Tom Wills - flawed genius, sporting libertine, fearless leader and agitator, Australia's first great cricketer - the man most often credited with creating the game we now know as Australian Rules football.

Sent to the strict Rugby School in England at fourteen, Tom returned as a worldly young man whose cricket prowess quickly captured the hearts of the colony. But away from the adoring crowds, in the desolation of the Queensland outback, he experienced first-hand the devastating effects of racial tension when his father was murdered in the biggest massacre of Europeans by First Nations people. Yet, five years later, Tom coached the first Aboriginal cricket team.

Tom Wills lived hard and fast, challenging authority on and off the field. But when his physical talents began to fade, the psychological demons that alcohol and adrenaline had kept at bay surged to the fore, driving him to the most brutal of suicides. He was forty-four and destitute.

Greg de Moore has carefully pieced together Tom's life, giving us an extraordinary portrait of one of Australia's first sporting heroes, a man who lived by his own rules and whose contribution to Australian history has endured for more than 150 years.

This updated edition of the bestselling and authoritative biography includes new research and addresses the most troubling of questions surrounding Tom Wills' spectacular yet tragic life.

'This updated, third edition of the biography of the larger-than-life, troubled figure of Tom Wills gives us a haunting portrait of the man who was instrumental in establishing the rules of AFL football and captained a touring Aboriginal cricket team in 1866 . . . has an epically larrikin, but tragic sweep.' - The Age

'a towering figure [who] deserves de Moore's brilliantly written and researched book' - The Australian

'illuminating and intelligent' - Inside Sport