Author talk: Dr. Greg de Moore

💥Tom Wills: Sport, Society and a Very Australian Tragedy💥

Tom Wills was a man of astonishing talent and impossible contradictions; a sporting hero whose life unfolded against the raw, restless backdrop of colonial Australia.

In this evocative talk, acclaimed author and psychiatrist Greg de Moore traces the arc of Wills’ life: bright with promise, shadowed by loss, and deeply entwined with the country that made and unmade him.

📅 Date: Thursday 7 August at 12:30 PM
📍 Location: Henry Carmichael Theatre, Level 1, 280 Pitt Street
🎟️ Tickets: Free for SMSA members, $10 for Friends and Non-Members

You can’t miss this talk if you’re drawn to true stories that illuminate the past and lay bare the society that shaped them!

ABOUT THE BOOK

This is the story of Tom Wills – flawed genius, sporting libertine, fearless leader and agitator, Australia’s first great cricketer – the man most often credited with creating the game we now know as Australian Rules football.

Sent to the strict Rugby School in England at fourteen, Tom returned as a worldly young man whose cricket prowess quickly captured the hearts of the colony. But away from the adoring crowds, in the desolation of the Queensland outback, he experienced first-hand the devastating effects of racial tension when his father was murdered in the biggest massacre of Europeans by First Nations people. Yet, five years later, Tom coached the first Aboriginal cricket team.

Tom Wills lived hard and fast, challenging authority on and off the field. But when his physical talents began to fade, the psychological demons that alcohol and adrenaline had kept at bay surged to the fore, driving him to the most brutal of suicides. He was forty-four and destitute.

Greg de Moore has carefully pieced together Tom’s life, giving us an extraordinary portrait of one of Australia’s first sporting heroes, a man who lived by his own rules and whose contribution to Australian history has endured for more than 150 years.

This updated edition of the bestselling and authoritative biography includes new research and addresses the most troubling of questions surrounding Tom Wills’ spectacular yet tragic life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Associate Professor Greg de Moore is a psychiatrist, historian and author. He is based at Westmead Hospital in western Sydney. His four books include Tom Wills: the insubordinate life of an Australian sporting legend which blends mental health and Australian history, winning numerous awards and was short-listed for the National Biography Award.

He is also co-author of Australia’s Game which documents the history of Australian Rules football from the mid-nineteenth century to the present; and Finding Sanity: John Cade, lithium and the taming of bipolar disorder, the biography of John Cade and Australia’s greatest mental health achievement: the discovery of lithium for the treatment of bipolar disorder.