H. W. ‘Bunny’ Austin, member of the victorious British team which won the Davis Cup four years running (1933-6), and perhaps the greatest tennis player who never won Wimbledon, was at the height of his career in the late 1930S when he embarked upon an even greater adventure. This ‘dual’ autobiography, written in alternating sections by Bunny and his wife, the actress Phyllis Konstam, shows how this adventure occurred and how each writer responded to it.
The Austins were both enjoying great success in the different worlds of first-class tennis and of the theatre and films, which they vividly describe, when, in 1934, after a meeting with members of Moral Re-Armament, Bunny began to realise that his life lacked a central purpose. He was attracted by the aims of MRA, but Phyllis’s reaction was quite different. ln an unflinchingly honest account she tells how she resisted being involved with anything outside her own immediate interests and how, as a result of her resistance, Bunny turned away from his newly found ideals and their marriage nearly broke down. When Bunny finally decided to stand by his beliefs, whatever his wife’s reactions, Phyllis at last came to understand them. Since then the authors have shared their ideals and practised them with courage and impressive singlemindedness.
This book is the sincere and absorbing record of two equally gifted and remarkable people, and of what they have made of their lives.
English
