New Book - Born out of Wenlock

"The Wenlock people alone have preserved and followed the true Olympian traditions". Pierre de Coubertin, 1897

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, London Mayor Boris Johnson memorably said of London 2012 that 'Ping-Pong is coming home'. In fact, he might justifiably have said that 'the modern Olympic movement is coming home'.

In 1850, Shropshire doctor William Penny Brookes began Olympian Games for the ‘moral, physical and intellectual improvement’ of the local population of Wenlock Borough. Within a decade he had donated a prize for athletics in Athens and was urging the Greeks to revive their ancient Games. He had also begun agitating for physical education to be compulsory at primary schools in England, an effort he sustained until the measure was finally passed in 1894.

Brookes, with help from John Hulley of Liverpool and Ernst Ravenstein of London, staged Britain’s first National Olympian Games at the Crystal Palace in 1866. W.G. Grace won the 440yd hurdles while simultaneously playing cricket for England at the Oval. Wenlock’s annual games became an important focus for the growing band of men developing sport in Britain, but Brookes’s egalitarian views on sport – that it should embrace all classes – temporarily fell foul of amateur exclusivity.

In 1890, Baron Pierre de Coubertin travelled to Much Wenlock, met Brookes and watched the Wenlock Olympian Games. Within two years, Coubertin had decided to revive Olympic Games as an international sporting championship, and in 1896, the first of the IOC’s Olympic Games were held in Athens. Brookes died just 17 weeks short of seeing international Olympic Games become a reality.

In this engaging and lively account, Catherine Beale tells the story of the Wenlock Olympian Games, considers their influence on the modern Olympics, and shows why Coubertin, though he failed fully to credit Brookes’s contribution to the movement, concluded that 'The Wenlock people alone have preserved and followed the true Olympian traditions.'

Born out of Wenlock is published by DB Publishing ISBN 9781859839676.

The book is available at bookshops throughout Shropshire and online via Catherine's website at www.cbeale.co.uk/Books/Born_out_of_Wenlock.html

Quotes from the Independent:

Simon Turnbull on Born Out of Wenlock in the Independent, Monday 11th July: "excellent... superbly written and exhaustively researched"

Brian Viner in the Independent on Saturday 25th June: "The continuing brouhaha over Olympics tickets seems to call for a reflection on simpler times and, with perfect timing, a lovely book has just been published, written by Catherine Beale and called Born Out of Wenlock. It tells the absorbing story, with which some of us are familiar, but nowhere near familiar enough, of how the small Shropshire market town of Much Wenlock, and the efforts and vision of a Victorian surgeon, William Penny Brookes, gave rise to the modern Olympic movement."

Also read Brian Viner's piece about the book in the Independent here. (Below the article about Wimbledon).

To learn more about Wenlock Olympian Games visit www.wenlock-olympian-society.org.uk