ALEX JAMES

A pint-sized schemer who guided Arsenal to four league titles in five seasons, Alex James was regarded as the finest footballer in the world during the 1930s having risen to national fame in Scotland’s 5-1 destruction of England in 1928 as a key figure in the famed ‘Wembley Wizards’. A rogue with a penchant for the good life, James may have rubbed shoulders with the great and good in the pre-war entertainment world of the capital, but he was still regarded as a mere player to the football authorities who imposed a maximum wage of just £8 per week on players who drew huge crowds and generated reams of press coverage. First published in the 1980s when many of James’ contemporaries were still alive to offer their reflections, John Harding’s acclaimed biography is an entertaining portrait of one of the key sporting figures of the 1930s and his place among the larger than life personalities in the lost world of pre-war football.