Private Don

Through the window of never before seen letters, Christine Wallace reveals the private Don Bradman - troubled father, loyal friend and outspoken critic.

'Have you ever stopped to think how much the hurly burly and turmoil of cricket have taken out of me in the last 40 years?'

He was the greatest cricketer the world has ever known. He was also one of the greatest enigmas. Sir Donald Bradman was a fiercely private man, but from 1953 to 1977 he faithfully maintained a lively correspondence with his close friend and confidant Rohan Rivett, the charismatic editor of The News in Adelaide.

The Private Don is an anatomy of the friendship between these two remarkable men - a friendship defined by cricket and by family. Through their feisty exchanges on the game, their thoughts on the media and world affairs, their closely argued opinions on investments, their touching mutual support on personal matters and, always, their rare and treasured meetings over bottles of red, a side to Bradman is revealed that Australia has never seen before.

Compulsory reading for cricket fans as well as lovers of biography, this is an outstanding portrait of the price of fame, the joys of friendship, and the preoccupations of an extraordinary yet very ordinary man.