Biography of the savaged, thrill-per-minute cricketer Kim Hughes and an investigation into what men can do to men when provoked/unprovoked.

Winner of best cricket book ever, wisden cricket monthly 2019
WINNER OF CRICKET BOOK OF THE YEAR, BRITISH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2010
SHORTLISTED FOR CRICKET SOCIETY/MCC BOOK OF THE YEAR 2010

Malcolm Knox’s 5 Favourite Sports Books – 
A Good Walk Spoiled by John Feinstein
You Know Me Al by Ring Lardner
Open by Andre Agassi
Golden Boy by Christian Ryan
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Published by Allen & Unwin (2009)
 

“It’s got chutzpah.” – PHIL WALKER, editor of Wisden Cricket Monthly

“Touch of the Icarus myth.” – STEVEN CARROLL in the Age

“Best biography of a sporting hero.” – VIJAY LOKAPALLY in Sportstar

“It deals with people, with hierarchies, with who has the right to do certain things and what is and isn’t legitimate.” – DAISY CHRISTODOULOU, author & educator

“About suffering, and the fragility of talent.” – LAWRENCE BOOTH, editor of Wisden

“Has this brawny lyricism that reminded me of Winton and Carey and even Les Murray sometimes. It’s really alive, that book.” – WILLIAM FIENNES, author of The Snow Geese and The Music Room

“Entirely credible and deeply absorbing account of Test cricket as it really is lived.” – STEPHEN FAY in Wisden Cricketer

“If half what we read here is true, two Australian legends should hang their heads in shame.” – SIMON WILDE in the Times

“At once unputdownable and also unpickupable, because if you pick it up you will eventually finish it and what are you going to do then?”– ROB SMYTH in The Guardian

“Tells how Kim Hughes went back to one of his earliest mentors, an old bushie named Pud Challis, and poured out his heart. Shortly before Challis died, in his mid-90s, Ryan obtained an interview with him. Challis said there were four names he would not speak: ‘Even when I hear their names mentioned – I detest them.’” – TIM LANE in the Sunday Age