This selection of the very best, and most intriguing, writing on cricket, drawn from the mid-18th century to the present day, adopts a fresh approach. It is arranged around the theme of the many things that must happen simply for a day's play to happen.

All in a Day's Cricket

Literature & Fiction

Levison, Brian

Martin-Jenkins, Christopher

Literary

Constable Robinson

Inspiring and irreverent by turns, Brian Levison's new anthology has drawn on rugby's wealth of excellent writing. Frank Keating, P. G. Wodehouse, Alec Waugh, A. A. Thomson, John Reason and Mick Imlah are among the distinguished names who have written movingly, amusingly and entertainingly about the game they loved. Great players such as Brian O'Driscoll, Willie John McBride, J. P. R. Williams, Chester Williams, Colin Meads, Gavin Hastings and Brian Moore give us a fascinating insider's view, as does World Cup Final referee Derek Bevan, who reveals what it is like to try to control thirty powerful and often volatile men in a highly competitive situation. But some of the best writing and the wittiest insights come from those who played their rugby at a much less exalted level.  The origins of the game - sometimes true, sometimes fanciful - are explored as are some of its rituals like the haka. There are amusing tales including that of the four Tibetan boys sent by the Dalai Lama to learn the game at Rugby School and an account of New Zealand scrum-half Chris Laidlaw's hostile reception at a village fÃªte in Wales. Along with barely believable stories about the game's hardest men, including the French coach Jean 'le Sultan' SÃ©bÃ©dio, who used to conduct training sessions wearing a sombrero and wielding a long whip, and 'Red' Conway who had his finger amputated rather than miss a game for South Africa.  One section 'Double Vision' looks at the same incident from opposing viewpoints, such as when the then relatively inexperienced Irish immortal Willie John McBride took a swing at the mighty All Black Colin Meads in a line-out. Another, 'Giving it Everything', shows how exceptional courage was not restricted to the rugby field but extended to the battle grounds of the First World War.  From the compiler of highly acclaimed All in a Day's Cricket, this selection covers the game from virtually every angle and is sure to delight any rugby fan.

Rugby: An Anthology: The Brave, the Bruised and the Brilliant (Dis Wheeler & Ross)

Sports & Outdoors

Miscellaneous

Little, Brown Book Group

Extracted from 1000 years of musical history, this is a fascinating collection of stories about classical music's most unusual concerts and characters.

Classical Music's Strangest Concerts: Extraordinary But True Stories From Over Five Centuries of Harmony and Discord (Strangest series)

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Robson Books

Across six of the seven continents on which cricket is played, there are some remarkable cricket grounds. From a tidal strip of sand outside the Ship Inn at Elie, in Fife, to the monumental Melbourne Cricket Ground with its 100,000 capacity, this book features the extraordinary places and venues in which cricket is played.Many grounds have remarkably beautiful settings. There is the rugged Devonian charm of Lynton and Lynmouth Cricket Club set in the Valley of the Rocks, not far from the North Devon coast. Then there is the vividly-coloured, almost Lego-like structure of Dharamshala pavilion in Northern India where local resident the Dalai Lama has watched a match.Many of England’s greatest players have come from public schools, and there are some wonderful examples of their cricket grounds such as Sedbergh and Milton Abbey. Country houses such as Audley End and Blenheim Palace form the backdrop to many cricket pitches, or castles, such as Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland, or even Portchester Castle, where there is a cricket ground inside the castle walls.Sri Lanka’s test ground, Galle, has a fort looming above it, while Newlands Stadium in Cape Town, has the unmistakeable Table Mountain as the backdrop. Some of the stunning imagery has a modern feel. Queenstown cricket ground has international jets taking off just yards from the playing action, while Singapore Cricket Club is an oasis of lush green set against a 21st century array of high-rise towers. Then there are cricket grounds in unusual places; Hawaii, Corfu, Berlin, Slovenia and St Moritz to name but a few.

Remarkable Cricket Grounds: An illustrated guide to the world’s best cricket grounds

Pavilion Books

Following the success of Remarkable Cricket Grounds, author Brian Levison focuses his attention on the amazing variety of grassroots cricket venues throughout the British Isles. In the original book he covered some of the largest stadia where cricket is played throughout the world. In Remarkable Village Cricket Grounds he concentrates on the smallest. The inventory of beautiful and atmospheric grounds includes those played by the seaside, at the edge of moorland, in front of grand country houses, on windblasted hillsides, next to windmills, thatched cottages and trout streams, in the heart of Cotswold stone hamlets, and many more on the country's verdant village greens. There are some classic cricketing pubs included along with lavish teas, ancient pitch rollers, equally ancient club secretaries, a variety of warning signs for parked cars amidst a compilation of set-piece British landscapes that will have the tourist boards begging for copies. It is a treasury of British life featuring clubs from: Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Hampshire, Sussex, Kent, Wiltshire, Bedfordshire, Surrey, Essex, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, Cumbria, Northumberland, Leicestershire, Wales and Scotland.

Remarkable Village Cricket Grounds: An illustrated guide to the world’s atmospheric village cricket grounds

From a tidal strip of sand outside the Ship Inn at Elie, in Fife, to the monumental Melbourne Cricket Ground with its 100,000 capacity, this book features the extraordinary places and venues in which cricket is played, now in a smaller format. 
Across six of the seven continents on which cricket is played, there are some remarkable cricket grounds. From a tidal strip of sand outside the Ship Inn at Elie, in Fife, to the monumental Melbourne Cricket Ground with its 100,000 capacity, this book features the extraordinary places and venues in which cricket is played. 
Many grounds have remarkably beautiful settings. There is the rugged Devonian charm of Lynton and Lynmouth Cricket Club set in the Valley of the Rocks, not far from the North Devon coast. Then there is the vividly-coloured, almost Lego-like structure of Dharamshala pavilion in Northern India. In contrast there are under-threat cricket pitches in North Yorkshire, such as Spout House, where Prince Harry played twice, scored 16, and then got bowled by a 12-year-old. 
Many of England’s greatest players have come from public schools, and there are some wonderful examples of their cricket grounds such as Sedbergh and Milton Abbey. Country houses such as Audley End and Blenheim Palace form the backdrop to many cricket pitches, or castles, such as Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland, or Raby Castle in County Durham. 
Sri Lanka’s test ground, Galle, has a fort looming above it, while Newlands Stadium in Cape Town, has the unmistakeable Table Mountain as the backdrop. Some of the stunning imagery has a modern feel. Queenstown cricket ground has international jets taking off just yards from the playing action, while Singapore Cricket Club is an oasis of lush green set against a 21st century array of high-rise towers. Then there are cricket grounds in unusual places; Hawaii, Corfu, Berlin, Slovenia and St Moritz to name but a few.

Remarkable Cricket Grounds: small format

Reference

Encyclopedias & Subject Guides

Cricket Grounds Then and Now

History

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