Fred Trueman was so much more than a cricketing legend. ' The greatest living Yorkshireman' according to Prime Minister Harold Wilson he couldn't help excelling at everything he did whether it was as a hostile fast bowler for Yorkshire & England & the first man to take 300 Test wickets in a career or as a fearlessly outspoken radio summariser for Test Match Special. He was famous for regularly spluttering that 'I don't know what's going off out there ' as well as for the amount of swearing he managed to incorporate into everyday speech. Beloved of cricket crowds who filled grounds to witness his belligerent way of playing the game & nothing but trouble to the cricket authorities ' Fiery Fred' was the epitome of a full-blooded Englishman. But as Chris Waters reveals in this first full biography behind the charismatic exuberant mask lay a far less self-assured man
- terrified even that his new dog wouldn't like him
- & whose bucolic version of his upbringing bore no relation to the gritty & impoverished South Yorkshire mining community where he actually grew up. Drawing on dozens of new interviews with his Yorkshire colleagues family & friends this life of Fred Trueman will surprise & even shock but also confirm the status of an English folk hero.