The Fair and the Foul

Inside Our Sporting Nation

Nonfiction, Sports, History, Biography & Memoir
Cover of the book The Fair and the Foul by David Hill, Penguin Random House Australia
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: David Hill ISBN: 9780857987594
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia Publication: July 31, 2017
Imprint: Random House Australia Language: English
Author: David Hill
ISBN: 9780857987594
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia
Publication: July 31, 2017
Imprint: Random House Australia
Language: English

If anyone is qualified to talk about sport in Australia, it's David Hill. In this book, with the benefit of his years of personal experience both playing and working in the sporting world, he vividly narrates its rise in Australia since the end of the nineteenth century, from the first cricket tour of England in 1868 by an Australian team - an Aboriginal team - to our earliest successes at the Olympics in 1896, when Edwin Flack was the only Australian competitor and won two gold medals, to the golden age of the 1950s when Australia ruled the world in tennis, swimming and athletics.

In this book David also recalls his battles as president of the North Sydney Bears with tobacco sponsorship lobby groups; his coup as managing director of the ABC in buying the broadcast rights for the AFL; his gargantuan efforts to clean up soccer as chairman of Soccer Australia. And he takes us through the shift in sport from the relative innocence of the amateur era to its commercialisation, which, through the years, has undoubtedly contributed to the uglier sides of our national obsession: the corruption, the drugs, the sexism and racism. Have we plunged to a nadir in recent times, or are these characteristics of our sporting nation an inevitable and permanent effect of the need to succeed?

This book is a riveting, personal take on a subject that so many Australians follow fanatically - a must-read for sports lovers, but also a compelling, revealing account for those who have never quite understood the appeal of our national obsession.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

If anyone is qualified to talk about sport in Australia, it's David Hill. In this book, with the benefit of his years of personal experience both playing and working in the sporting world, he vividly narrates its rise in Australia since the end of the nineteenth century, from the first cricket tour of England in 1868 by an Australian team - an Aboriginal team - to our earliest successes at the Olympics in 1896, when Edwin Flack was the only Australian competitor and won two gold medals, to the golden age of the 1950s when Australia ruled the world in tennis, swimming and athletics.

In this book David also recalls his battles as president of the North Sydney Bears with tobacco sponsorship lobby groups; his coup as managing director of the ABC in buying the broadcast rights for the AFL; his gargantuan efforts to clean up soccer as chairman of Soccer Australia. And he takes us through the shift in sport from the relative innocence of the amateur era to its commercialisation, which, through the years, has undoubtedly contributed to the uglier sides of our national obsession: the corruption, the drugs, the sexism and racism. Have we plunged to a nadir in recent times, or are these characteristics of our sporting nation an inevitable and permanent effect of the need to succeed?

This book is a riveting, personal take on a subject that so many Australians follow fanatically - a must-read for sports lovers, but also a compelling, revealing account for those who have never quite understood the appeal of our national obsession.

More books from Penguin Random House Australia

Cover of the book Unstoppable Brainspin: Seriously Useless Crime Stoppers by David Hill
Cover of the book Fashion Speak by David Hill
Cover of the book Trash to Treasure by David Hill
Cover of the book And Now For Some Light Relief...The Genuinely Funny Joke Book by David Hill
Cover of the book A Passionate Life by David Hill
Cover of the book Monkey Mountain: Extreme Adventures by David Hill
Cover of the book The Bodysurfers: Penguin Special by David Hill
Cover of the book Squeaker's Mate: Penguin Special by David Hill
Cover of the book Bush Doctors by David Hill
Cover of the book When Courage Came To Call by David Hill
Cover of the book The Witch Hunter Chronicles 1: The Scourge Of Jericho by David Hill
Cover of the book Life Sentence by David Hill
Cover of the book The Horse That Bart Built by David Hill
Cover of the book The Billionaire's Pursuit of Love: Destiny Romance by David Hill
Cover of the book Gotta B by David Hill
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy