Alex James
Life of a Football Legend

From his deep-lying inside-forward position, James was the creative hub of the classic Arsenal team of the 1930's, collecting the ball from defenders, then spraying passes to either wing. This title recreates the life and times of a remarkable man and one of the greatest players in the history of the game.

'Wee Alex' was a genius with his feet, a comedian with baggy shorts and flapping shirt sleeves, who could set the crowd in a roar, an argumentative and sometimes stubborn man with a ready wit and a talent for publicity. James' often difficult life and his dazzling career are recounted here in lively detail - from his first boots (bought by an elder brother) and the struggle towards his first professional games with Raith Rovers in 1922, to the magic moment when Herbert Chapman signed him up for Arsenal for the princely sum of GBP 9,000 - an action that bound him to the club, then the epitome of footballing glamour, even after Chapman's death and his own retirement from first-class football. In this lively, profusely illustrated biography, John Harding has drawn on the recollections of men and women who knew James well, both on and off the pitch, as well as writers and journalists down the years, to vividly recreate the life and times of a remarkable man and one of the greatest players in the history of the game.