
On a still March day in 1940, a sporting hero perished. He had lived fast and died young, as a flyer on the rugby field and as a pilot in the Royal Air Force, killed in the service of his adopted country. He was a refugee from a noble family in Russia who fought to be accepted as, and live the life of, a quintessential Englishman. His story is unmatched in sporting history for its agony and ecstasy, dislocation and vindication, love and loss. This is the first biography, and the complete story, of Prince Alexander Sergeevich Obolensky.