{"product_id":"grass-arena","title":"Grass Arena","description":"\u003cp\u003eJohn Healy''s \u003ci\u003eThe Grass Arena \u003c\/i\u003edescribes with unflinching honesty his experiences of addiction, his escape through learning to play chess in prison, and his ongoing search for peace of mind. This Penguin Classics edition includes an afterword by Colin MacCabe.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn his searing autobiography Healy describes his fifteen years living rough in London without state aid, when begging carried an automatic three-year prison sentence and vagrant alcoholics prowled the parks and streets in search of drink or prey. When not united in their common aim of acquiring alcohol, winos sometimes murdered one another over prostitutes or a bottle, or the begging of money. Few modern writers have managed to match Healy''s power to refine from the brutal destructive condition of the chronic alcoholic a story so compelling it is beyond comparison.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJohn Healy (b. 1943) 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 alcoholic early on in life. Despite these obstacles Healy achieved remarkable, indeed phenomenal expertise in both writing and chess, as outlined in the autobiographical \u003ci\u003eThe Grass Arena\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf you enjoyed \u003ci\u003eThe Grass Arena\u003c\/i\u003e, you might like \u003ci\u003eLast Exit to Brooklyn\u003c\/i\u003e, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''Sober and precise, grotesque, violent, sad, charming and hilarious all at once''\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLiterary Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e''Beside it, a book like Orwell''s \u003ci\u003eDown and Out in Paris and London\u003c\/i\u003e seems a rather inaccurate tourist guide''\u003cbr\u003eColin MacCabe\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57312059916670,"sku":"NW9780141189598","price":9.65,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780141189598.jpg?v=1779984163","url":"https:\/\/mediaplace.com\/products\/grass-arena","provider":"MediaPlace","version":"1.0","type":"link"}