1/21/2023 0 Comments John healy triumph![]() ![]() ‘My first visit to Hastings was in 1974 where I played matches at the chess club every month during that summer. Healy first visited Hastings 45 years ago, and has written: Healy was able to play four games simultaneously while wearing a blindfold. Extraordinary for an adult who never saw a chessboard as a child, Healy would win ten major British chess tournaments, forcing a draw from the Soviet grandmaster Rafael Vaganian, then graded the second best player in the world. John’s two magnificent obsessions were yoga and chess, which he was taught in a Pentonville prison cell by Harry the Fox. The book and Gillies Mackinnon’s fine film adaptation have gained between them over a dozen major national and international awards. ![]() Published in 1988, this book captured John’s life leading to 1973. Upon capture, Healy got transferred to a penal battalion. ![]() ![]() This was the Ireland of his childhood summers, which he would evoke in his autobiography The Grass Arena. Healy had been a lightweight boxer and, after absconding from the army, headed to Ireland. By the time he heard his father had died, Healy had become a violent alcoholic and destitute at a time when begging carried an automatic prison sentence. Raised by a violent father in a house where his sister hid beneath the stairs reading for peace, John as first-born was singled out in his father’s rages. The writer John Healy was born in Kentish Town London to Irish parents hailing from Sligo and Roscommon. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |