The definitive biography of the visionary sportsman who brought us Australian Rules football This is the story of Tom Wills—flawed genius, sporting libertine, fearless leader, and agitator, and the man most often credited with creating the game we now know as Australian Rules football. Sent to the strict British Rugby School in 1850 at 14, Tom returned as a worldly young man whose cricket prowess quickly captured the hearts of Melburnians. But away from the adoring crowds, in the desolation of the Queensland outback, he experienced first-hand the devastating effects of racial tension when his father was murdered in the biggest massacre of Europeans by Aboriginal people. Yet five years later, Tom coached the first Aboriginal cricket team. Tom Wills lived hard and fast, challenging authority on and off the field. But when his physical talents began to fade, the psychological demons that alcohol and adrenaline had kept at bay surged to the fore, driving him to commit the most brutal of suicides. He was 44 and destitute. Greg de Moore has carefully pieced together Tom's life, giving us an extraordinary portrait of the life and times of one of our first sporting heroes, a man who lived by his own rules and whose contribution to Australian history has endured for more than 150 years.

Tom Wills: First Wild Man of Australian Sport

de Moore, Greg

Biographies & Memoirs

Allen& Unwin

<p>In 1948, there was no medication for bipolar illness. Sufferers from the illness would live their lives—if they survived—in and out of asylums accumulating life's wreckage around them. But late in 1948 that changed, when an Australian doctor, John Cade, discovered a treatment that has become the gold standard for bipolar illness—lithium. John Cade changed the course of medicine with his discovery of lithium; yet today most doctors have never heard of his name. His discovery has stopped more people from committing suicide than a thousand help lines, yet few counselors know of him. And it has saved hundreds of billions of dollars in health care costs—enough to rival a nation's economy—but you can bet that no politician has the slightest idea of who John Cade was. Lithium is the penicillin story of mental health; the first effective medication discovered for the treatment of a mental illness; and a great story in the history of mental health.</p>

Finding Sanity: John Cade, Lithium and the Taming of Bipolar Disorder

Westmore, Ann

Professionals & Academics

<p>The updated edition of the definitive biography of the visionary sportsman who brought us Australian Rules football and was the greatest cricketer of his era.</p>

Tom Wills: The insubordinate life of an Australian sporting legend

Sports & Outdoors

Other Team Sports

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Books by de Moore, Greg