...reserved, cautious, rather prickly private individual. It defies cultural norms. An Australian who batted like Bradman had to be swashbuckler, surely, one of the boys, a larrikin. Like the ineffable Warnie.

But the contradictions make Bradman's successful life an heroic achievement. Its effortfulness and Bradman's approach to the struggle are to be seen, sharply defined, in the events of the three years between his departure for his momentous tour of England in 1930 and the beginning of the Bodyline series in the Australian summer of 1932-33.

Bradman wanted to announce his engagement to Jessie Menzies before he sailed for England, but Jessie persuaded him to wait until he returned. She loved him and her motives in putting off the announcement were unselfish. An engagement was a binding commitment for couples of their generation and Don, with his rigorous standards, would feel himself more tightly bound than most by a formal agreement. Jessie was sensitive to the transformation of his life this trip to England might bring.

She had never travelled abroad but like many--probably most--of her contemporaries, nursed dazzling visions of England, the motherland and heart of Empire.

To Jessie there seemed every likelihood that Don would meet people at this confluence of power and glory who would open his eyes to possibilities of achievement beyond the most soaring imaginings of a boy from a poor family in a small Australian country town. There might be business opportunities. He might meet--though Jessie did not like to dwell on this--other, irresistibly glamorous women.

She did not want Don, at twenty-one, to be hobbled by a commitment to her before he saw what the world beyond Australia had to offer. More than that she did not want him fulfilling his commitment to her in his punctilious way while his mind was full of thoughts of what might have been, and possibly to remain that way for the rest...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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