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The much-loved former England player, Guardian cricket correspondent and TMS broadcaster tells the story of his life in cricket for the first time. In April 1974 new recruits Viv Richards, Ian Botham, Peter Roebuck and Vic Marks reported for duty at Somerset County Cricket Club. Apart from Richards, 'all of us were eighteen years old, though Botham seemed to have lived a bit longer - or at least more vigorously - than the rest.' In this irresistible memoir of a life lived in cricket, Vic Marks returns to the heady days when Richards and Botham were young men yet to unleash their talents on the world stage while he and Roebuck looked on in awe. After the high-octane dramas of Somerset, playing for England was almost an anti-climax for Marks, who became an unlikely all-rounder in the mercurial side of the 1980s. Moving from the dressing room to the press box, with trenchant observations about the modern game along the way, Original Spin is a charmingly wry, shrewdly observed account of a golden age in cricket.
What follows, which explores some of the charms, the quirks and the peculiar allure of cricket from a variety of perspectives, is not intended as a memorial for long-lost sepia days. The game is still alive. Whether it turns out to be therapy for me or entertainment for you remains to be seen. To achieve both would be a bonus. From Somerset stalwart to acclaimed writer and broadcaster, Vic Marks has lived a life steeped in cricket. In Late Cuts he takes us beyond the boundary rope, sharing the parts of the game fans don't get to see, from the food served at lunchtime (then - sweaty ham; now - quinoa, cranberry and feta salad) to the politics of the dressing room. Whether revisiting his playing days to reveal the secrets of bowling a killer spell and what it feels like to be heckled by a riled-up crowd, or ruminating on the current state of the game (don't mention The Hundred!), this amusing and insightful collection will delight all cricket lovers.
'An astonishing work of research, detail and revelation. Bulging with information, packed with nuggets.' John Etheridge, Sun 'Superbly researched... His eye for detail never wavers. It’s a pleasure to read.' Vic Marks, Observer 'The Cricket Book of the Year: Dauntingly comprehensive and surprisingly light-footed.' Simon Briggs, Daily Telegraph England: The Biography is the most comprehensive account of the England cricket team that has ever been published, taking the reader into the heart of the action and the team dynamics that have helped shape their success, or otherwise. It is now 140 years since England first played Test match cricket and, for much of that time, it has struggled to pe...
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In The Immortals of English Cricket, Bill Ricquier tells the cricketing life stories of eleven of England's greatest (male) cricketers. Ricquier selects his Immortal English team from players who didn't just dominate, they changed the game with their sheer will. Those portrayed include: Jack Hobbs, the highest run-scorer in the history of first-class cricket; Ian Botham, who was the most famous sportsman in the country in the 1980s; and James Anderson, England's leading Test wicket taker. Selected also is Wilfred Rhodes, the legendary slow left arm bowler who made almost 40,000 first-class runs and took over 4,000 first-class wickets, and the extraordinary Fred Trueman, described as the "finest bloody fast bowler that ever drew breath." The Immortals of English Cricket will inspire discussion, debate and controversy but indisputably represents a team of remarkable skill and character, one to proudly represent the Crown and Three Lions on any Elysian field.
A knock at the door in the middle of the night pulls a Chicago PI into a web of crime and corruption in this “captivating” New York Times bestseller (The Baltimore Sun). V.I. “Vic” Warshawski’s alcoholic aunt turns up at her door at three in the morning, accompanied by an addict friend after the hotel she’s been living in burns down, and Vic is soon on the trail of an arsonist. But then the private investigator starts getting ominous messages, and her aunt’s friend is found dead . . . with Vic’s driver’s license in their possession. To unravel the mystery and keep herself alive, Vic will have to delve into the dark world of the city’s unhoused population—and the even darker world of Chicago’s wealthy and powerful—in this steely thriller by a winner of multiple Anthony, Edgar, and Dagger Awards. “One gritty good read . . . V.I. is a worthy heir to Marlowe.” —Daily News (New York) “Fast-paced.” —The New York Times Book Review “America’s most convincing and engaging professional female private eye.” —Entertainment Weekly “V.I. Warshawski is good company.” —Los Angeles Times
Winner of the WISDEN BOOK OF THE YEAR award and the TELEGRAPH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF THE YEAR, this book is a celebration of the elegance and timeless beauty of cricket—its greatest and most stylish players, from past heroes to today’s stars, along with its idyllic and hallowed grounds. Cricket has been played for over three hundred years and in some ways remains largely unchanged. It is this timelessness, and the style and spirit in which the game is conducted, which is celebrated in This Is Cricket. The book brings together such idyllic settings as Sir Paul Getty's Ground in Buckinghamshire, U.K., surrounded by rolling countryside, with the Otago cricket ground in New Z...
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When Len Hutton led the MCC to the Caribbean in 1953/54, the series was billed as the 'world championship of cricket' and described later as the most controversial since Bodyline. Who Only Cricket Know provides the first full-length account of this extraordinary tour, where a rollercoaster of a Test series was only half the story.