Book description
John Healy, the son of poor Irish immigrants in London, grows up
hardened by violence and soon finds himself overwhelmed by alcoholism.
He ends up in the grass arena: the parks and streets of the inner city,
where beggars, thieves, prostitutes and killers fight for survival and
each day brings the question of where to find the next drink. In his
searing autobiography Healy describes with unflinching honesty his
experiences of addiction, his escape through learning to play chess in
prison, and his ongoing search for peace of mind. Healy was born into
an impoverished, Irish immigrant family, in the slums of Kentish Town,
North London. Out of school by 14, pressed into the army and
intermittently in prison, Healy became an alocholic early on in life.
Despite these obstacles Healy achieved remarkable, indeed phenomenal
expertise in both writing and Chess, as outlined in the autobiographical
The Grass Arena
.
