Nimble Foot by Robert Drewe

Book Description

Secondhand. Very good condition. Minor wear to book corners and edges, with front cover tail right corner now protected with book tape. Interior and binding are still very good.

At the age of ten, and just short of four feet tall, a boy from Ballarat named Johnny Day became Australia's first international sporting hero. Against adult competition, he wooed crowds across continents as the World Champion in pedestrianism (walking), the sporting craze of the day.

A few years later, in 1870, he won the Melbourne Cup on a horse aptly called Nimblefoot, this time impressing British royalty and Melbourne's high society. And then, still aged only fourteen, this already-famous athlete and jockey disappeared without a trace.

Robert Drewe picks up where history leaves off, re-imagining Johnny's life following his great Cup win. In doing so, he brings us an adventure story, a coming of age classic, a manhunt, a thriller, but most of all, a rollicking good yarn.

Johnny Day is a character that couldn't be invented, but in the masterful re-imagining of his life, Robert Drewe shows storytelling at its best and lays claim to Johnny Day's rightful place in Australia's illustrious sporting history. (back cover)