Author(s): Martin Flanagan

Australian

Thomas Wentworth Wills is an Australian Icarus. Having grown up among the Djabwurrung people in western Victoria, he was sent to the Rugby school in England. Returning in 1856, he promptly revolutionised colonial cricket and opened the door for the evolution of the indigenous game we know as Australian football. In 1866, he coached the Aboriginal team which later: became the first Australian cricket team to tour England, despite having suffered in the war being fought at the countrys frontiers between white settlers and the lands Aboriginal inhabitants. Tom Wills died a neglected and forgotten figure. His life is an Australian tragedy, but it bequeathed to the nation a unique and hopeful legacy. The Call is a remarkable novel. In charting the history of one mans life, it takes us to the birth of sport in this country, and to the horrors of racial struggle which continue to this day. His story is lyrical, subtle and true