To Robert Maxwell he was a bloody-minded Yorkshireman, to Fred Trueman he was one of the greatest bowlers of all time, but few could argue with the fact that Bob Appleyard is a truly remarkable person.

One of the heroes of Yorkshire cricket, he has a place in the record books as the only bowler ever to have taken 200 wickets in his first full season.

It's an impressive achievement - and even more so when you realise that he was probably already suffering from the tuberculosis which almost put a premature end to his cricket career.

But far from allowing the disease to finish his career Bob fought his way back after an operation to remove half a lung - teaching himself to walk again before becoming part of the Test team which wrenched the Ashes away from the Australians nearly half a century ago.

His incredible comeback was a sign of the sheer determination and lack of self-pity which has helped him overcome terrible tragedies in his personnel life.

His remarkable story is told in the biography No Coward Soul, which was officially launched at Headingley this week.

It is a tale publishers first tried to get in 1955 but until it is only now - at the age of 79 - that Bob is finally allowing it to be told.

A series of truly awful problems began when Bob was just seven years old and already dreaming of becoming a cricketer. It was the year when he acquired his first cricket bat - and the year when his mother left home.

From then on the young boy and his five-year-old sister Margaret had limited contact with their mother and must have suffered a terrible sense of rejection.

But the former cricketer does not like to dwell too much on life's setbacks and simply admits: "It was upsetting and very hard, but children adapt very quickly.

"My parents were divorced at a time when divorce was unheard of. My mother's side was Roman Catholic and my father's side were Protestant, and I think that was part of the problem.

His father went on to remarry and had two more daughters, but in 1937 the family was hit by tragedy when Margaret caught diptheria and died.

And just two years later - with the outbreak of war - Bob's world was devastated by the death of his father, step-mother and two young sisters.

At the age of just 15 Bob had returned home to find his family gassed and lying side by side in the bathroom of their Bradford home.

His father, a deeply religious man, who had joined the Quakers for a time, remembered the Great War and feared for the future of his family when the Second World War was announced.

Not surprisingly, the awful discovery is not something the cricketer has talked much about.

The biography, by Stephen Chalke and Derek Hodgson, says: "His memory is confused. He has talked so rarely about those twenty-four hours, and he can no longer recall the exact sequence of events."

But he said: "People talk about overcoming adversities, but the fact is you have to tackle them - you have no option.

"There are up and downs in life - and the fact that I had these problems did make me appreciate life a lot more."

Bob's own deep faith has helped him to cope with a whole series of events which could so easily have broken him.

After the terrible gassing he was taken in by his stepmother's parents who offered him a home despite their own grief.

He grew close to their son Norman, a pilot in the Royal Air Force - but again he was robbed of the man he regarded as an older brother when Norman died in active service in 1941.

Bob himself went on to join the Air Training Corps and later served in the Royal Navy.

By the time he was chosen to play for Yorkshire it was 1950 and he was already 26 - but made his mark by taking 200 wickets in his first season.

But he was soon struggling with problems of fitness and exhaustion - and less than two years later his dream seemed over when he was diagnosed with advanced tuberculosis.

At a time when many died of the disease and many more were left as invalids the future looked bleak.

But Bob was determined not only to recover but to play cricket again.

Thanks to his own strength of spirit, the expertise of the Leeds Infirmary surgeon Geoffrey Wooler, and the development of new drugs he successfully underwent an operation to remove part of his lung.

His wife Connie brought him a cricket ball, and during the long immobile months he worked his fingers on it constantly to maintain the hard skin or "hoof" that would be needed for his comeback.

Connie,who gave birth to their first child while her husband was in hospital, was warned that he would never play at a first class level again.

But he proved the doubters wrong in spectacular style not only by playing again but by being picked for England,

In an amazing turnaround he became a central figure in Len Hutton's Ashes winning side.

And he inadvertently became a hero and a symbol of hope to tuberculosis sufferers everywhere after a series of articles about his recovery in a national newspaper.

"I became a kind of role model for TB patients not just in this country but throughout the commonwealth," he said.

"And for that reason I suppose it meant I had to keep going."

Even amidst the friendly rivalry of the Test Australian fans would cheer when he went on the play, he said.

"People talk about the 200 wickets being a great achievement," he said. "But I think it was a greater achievement to come back after a lung operation and play for England - for the simple reason that it gave hope to a lot of TB sufferers."

During his time in Australia Mr Appleyard was invited to dinner by the legendary Don Bradman.

"He was a wonderful person - and the greatest batsman of all time," he said "I don't think anyone would argue with that."

His biography provides fascinating snapshots of some of the greatest names in cricket from a time when a strict social hierarchy was maintained.

"There used to be quite a wide gap between the professional and amateur players but during my time this has changed.

"At one time the amateurs had separate changing rooms and before that they used to come out of the ground through separate gates."

But as interesting as the history may be Mr Appleyard insists that the game needs to look ahead rather than back to the past.

He is a trustee of the Yorkshire County Cricket Club Charitable Youth Trust - which provides facilities, equipment and coaching for tomorrow's cricketers.

And all his share of the proceeds from the book will go towards the Sir Leonard Hutton Charitable Trust.

Now happily settled in Ilkley Mr and Mrs Appleyard enjoy visits from their daughters Rosemarie and Liz, and their grandchildren Rebecca, William, Olivia, James, Sarah and Sam.

But their happy family life is tinged with sadness when they remember their son Ian and grandson John who both died of leukaemia after being diagnosed whilst very young children.

"Anyone who loses a child thinks why is this happening to me," he said. "You cannot avoid feeling that but you have to come to terms with it.

His son Ian was just three when he was dianosed with the disease.

"Our world fell apart," Mr Appleyard remembers. "There was so little they could do at that time. I think everybody lived in hope that there might be a cure round the corner.

"Fortunatley there have been massive strides in the treatment of leukaemia since then."

But medical advances were not enough to save his grandson John who was just two when family history repeated itself.

"They said it was a chance in a million - but that doesn't make it any easier to accept," he said.