Description
Book SynopsisGilly: The Turbulent Life of Roy Gilchrist is the tragic account of a cricket meteor who crashed to earth all too quickly because of his flawed temperament. Born into grinding poverty in rural Jamaica in 1934, Gilchrist's prowess as a phenomenal fast bowler quickly gained him international recognition, but the failure to curb his unstable temperament saw him sent home from the West Indies tour of India in 1959 for dangerous bowling. A victim of the class-ridden clique that ran West Indies cricket, Gilchrist hardly helped his cause by refusing to alter his aggressive demeanour. Excessive gamesmanship and constant fights on and off the field, culminating in a prison sentence for attacking his wife with a hot iron, not only put paid to any hopes of reviving his Test career; it also tainted his reputation irrevocably. Sadly, he lived his final years as a pauper afflicted by disease.
Trade Review“In truth however the real surprise is just how long it has taken for a writer to decide to commit the Gilchrist story to paper, as even a moderate author would surely have been able to write a decent book on him. The fact that the man who eventually took on the task, Mark Peel, has a track record as an accomplished biographer is, effectively, a copper-bottomed guarantee that Gilly was going to be well worth reading… As far as the book itself is concerned it is one of those, relatively rare amongst cricketing biographies, that once picked up is difficult to put down. I suspect that come awards time Gilly will be on every long list, most short lists, and surely will come out on top somewhere. As cricket books go it is just about perfect… Gilly is a superb read, and highly recommended.”
-- Martin Chandler * Cricket Web *
"A compelling read... Peel’s biography reveals a typically exhaustive trawl through assorted books and local newspapers, while a phalanx of old league cricketers have been happy to share memories that enrich the many descriptions of crucial league matches."
* Association of Cricket Statisticians *
“I enjoyed the book immensely and it’s a cracking read. One of Mark Peel’s best... A player removed from Test and pretty much first-class cricket after some antics on the sub-continent. Written off as a sort of ignorant thug, it’s about time that someone looked afresh at a cricketer who was destructive on the field and self-destructive off it. Fortunately, Peel is just the kind of detached, intelligent writer to give us a more balanced and rounded view. It’s a tale that has more than a feel of Bruce Hamilton’s fictional account of a cricketer about it, with a story of a talented man from the wrong side of the tracks who finds success and then catastrophic failure with blame that can be apportioned to the player and many others, and happy endings in short supply.” * The Cricket Society Journal *
"Gilly, the turbulent life of Roy Gilchrist, is a rollicking, astonishing read."
-- Ken Piesse * Pavilion, the Australian Cricket Society Magazine *
