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Article: W.G. Grace: A Life.
- Article from:
- Contemporary Review
- Article date:
- September 1, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Contemporary Review Company Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Simon Rae. Faber and Faber. [pounds]20.00. 400 pages. ISBN 0-571-17855-3.
'With the beard of a Goth or a Vandal', which he tugged vigorously when agitated, and standing six-foot two in his stockinged feet, the man 'generally admitted to be the most wonderful cricketer that ever handled a bat' must, as Simon Rae reminds us in his new biography of W. G. Grace, have been an imposing physical presence. A 'bulky sprite', G. K. Chesterton called him, 'a prodigious Puck in a truly midsummer day's dream.' Sir Arthur Conan Doyle remembered the high-pitched voice - he never lost his Gloucestershire accent - 'which seemed so queer from so big a body'.
William Gilbert ...