Tuesday, February 05, 2008

A plea

Hello, it's me Simon.

I'm looking for a book, I wonder if you can get it for me? It's by a guy called John Healy and it's called The Grass Arena. It's the autobiography of this guy who was a boxer who turned to drink and then the booze took over his life and he ended up on the street for 15 years. During one of his prison spells he was introduced to chess, and it changed his life. It seems he was an absolute genius at it and it kind of turned his life around.
About 8 years ago a fine fellow called Andy Walker (who I've unfortunately lost touch with), suggested I read it. It was out of print then, but apparently it's now available through a publisher called Kingpin. Here's the ISBN 9780955551208.
I'd really like to read the book (and stock it in the shop) as I understand it's a bit of a gem. Is it distributed by anyone out there?
Thanks

4 comments:

Akasha Savage. said...

I know I'm a couple of posts late, but I love the badges! e-bay here I come!! :D

June said...

I checked that ISBN on the Gardners website, since they stock my book and are the biggest wholesaler in the country (so they tell us anyway) - none in stock. I then typed the ISBN into amazon and found that they are out of stock - amazon usually get all their stock from either Bertrams or Gardners so it must be available from one of them then - presumably as a special order (ie non returnable).

Anonymous said...

Can't help with a new copy, but there are a couple of reasonaby priced ones on abebooks.co.uk

Anonymous said...

We have a copy in our reserve here at Bedfordshire Libraries. Pop down to your local library and ask them to get it for you via the Inter Library Loans service (there may be a fee). Who knows ? They may even have a copy there themselves. It's what libraries are for doncha know :o)