Steven Bell and Steven Verrier have both done great jobs with their prospective subjects. Bell had a head start, as he had great access to a lot of information on Douglas through the Douglas family. The chapter where he tells of just how he came to learn of the missing Douglas story, gives you one of those ‘wow, how fortunate was that’ moments. There’s plenty in the book for wrestling fans, but it is very much a complete history of his life in rugby and of his part in the Great War.
Verrier also had a great deal of information available to him, thanks to Gordienko’s nephew, who has been almost the sole provider of George’s life and dual careers up until this books release. I think this is a cracker of a book and I now know so much more of George the wrestler and George the artist.
I’m about the third of the way through the Murphy book, it is very atmospheric regarding the times and places he grew up and started to find his niche in life.
