Book of the Week
CB Fry By Iain Wilton Richard Cohen Books pounds 25
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.READERS SHOULD not be deterred by the warning that the foreword is by Jeffrey Archer. Iain Wilton, who has written for Chris Patten and William Waldegrave, is an infinitely better performer.
What persuaded him to write a 500-page biography of the golden boy of cricket's Golden Age was the realisation that one of the legendary figures of Edwardian Britain had been celebrated rarely, by just his autobiography Life Worth Living (1939), two minor works in 1912 and the early 1950s and only at length by one proper biographer, Clive Ellis's excellent Charles Burgess Fry in 1984.
The more Wilton read of Fry the more he had misgivings about the story so far. Ellis and the other writers had spotted that some of Fry's tales were clearly exaggerated, if not downright lies.Was he hiding something ? Had he more to hide?
Apparently so. There was some doubt about his mental state in later life. His wife Beatrice was an extraordinary woman who today would never be out of the tabloids.There are suggestions that his family in Sussex were involved in smuggling. A pillar of the establishment, he had an affair and a daughter outside marriage.
Worst of all, he was probably an admirer of Hitler and sympathetic to fascism, sentiments he played down in his own book, published as Britain was going to war with Nazi Germany. That said, no one can take take away his astonishing record: he won 12 Blues at Oxford, played cricket and football for England, played rugby union for the Barbarians (which meant, in effect, he was as good as an international player) and held the world long jump record. He won a major scholarship to Oxford, wrote several books, became a successful magazine editor, represented India at the League of Nations, was offered the throne of Albania (how differently things might have turned out) and his friends included Max Beerbohm, Hilaire Belloc, Mary Astor, Lord Baden-Powell, Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone as well as every leading sporting figure of the time.
He was described as "the handsomest man in England" and known in his Oxford days as "The Almighty". Wilton has also discovered a stint as a nude model and a supposed contact from beyond the grave. Could CB Fry, in fact, been an extraterrestrial visitor?
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments