The Call

by Martin Flanagan

Book by Flanagan, Martin

Genres: Fiction

181 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1998

About the author

Martin Flanagan is the author of twenty books, a play and two movie treatments. He is one of Australia’s most respected sports journalists and wrote for The Age from 1985 to 2017.

Reviews

[Greg James · Rating 3 out of 5]

The amazing story of Thomas Wentworth Wills, gun cricketer, footballer and drinker! He packed a lot into his 38 years, including bowling to W G Grace, leading a group of aboriginal cricketers on a tour of England, and helping to write the rules of Australian rules football. Oh , and he was involved in the massacre of many aboriginals in Queensland, in retaliation for an attack which resulted in his father’s death. To say Tom was a divisive character is a massive understatement!

[Oliver Hodson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure what I wanted this book to be, but it wasn't quite what I thought. It wavered between being a biography of Wills and a historical rumination on early colonial victoria, sport, and race relations. I wish it had been a bit more forensic or a little more ruminant, because in the end I felt it lacked focus. I'm not sure if it was because the historical records were thin or Flanagan didn't want to talk on boring stuff, but I wanted to hear more about football, especially the establishment of the rules and games Wills played in.

I thought that the strength of the book was leaving the stories in their time and the tram conductor narrator was only partially bridging the old stories to the current time, and pretty much always in a personal or misty way, rather than politicking way, which made me surprised to read about the controversy over the book in the 'History wars'.

[Loene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story (a historical novel I guess but where does fact end and fiction begin?) of TW Wills, early brilliant cricket player in Melbourne, and the story of the beginnings of the colony of Victoria and its establishment families. And the creation of football. Also involving the sad story of attitudes and behaviour of colonialists towards Aborigines. Slaughter on the one hand and at the same time recruiting of Aborigines ( the dying race) to play in the first 'native' cricket team to play in England. Compelling and ultimately sad.