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Cricket Books
- Thread starter archie mac
- Start date
archie mac
International Coach
Yes, most think it a hagiography (spelling), and are always annoyed with Perry for not providing sources for his quotes in his books. Although I did not mind The Don
fredfertang
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Grovel
The West Indies tour section of my 1977 Wisden is one of the most read parts of any. I was 16 at the time and the long hot summer and O-levels being out of the way by June meant I could watch virtually all of that fascinating series. I was always surprised at the time that nobody bothered to produce a book about it but lo and behold 31 years later a guy called David Tossell has produced a book with the above title. It is a marvellous book which not only gives a splendid account of a fascinating series but containing as it does the reflections on the series of many of the participants it gives a wonderfully rounded picture of the whole thing and places it all in its proper historical perspective.
Favourite bit – David Steel on Brian Close – I understand Steele is an after dinner speaker – I recall his deadpan Staffordshire accent – to hear him come out with the soundbites (well only one really) about Closey that are attributed to him here would be worth the admission money alone.
The West Indies tour section of my 1977 Wisden is one of the most read parts of any. I was 16 at the time and the long hot summer and O-levels being out of the way by June meant I could watch virtually all of that fascinating series. I was always surprised at the time that nobody bothered to produce a book about it but lo and behold 31 years later a guy called David Tossell has produced a book with the above title. It is a marvellous book which not only gives a splendid account of a fascinating series but containing as it does the reflections on the series of many of the participants it gives a wonderfully rounded picture of the whole thing and places it all in its proper historical perspective.
Favourite bit – David Steel on Brian Close – I understand Steele is an after dinner speaker – I recall his deadpan Staffordshire accent – to hear him come out with the soundbites (well only one really) about Closey that are attributed to him here would be worth the admission money alone.
SJS
Hall of Fame Member
Well the book was first published in 1996. Don died 6 years later and he would have had a lot to say if there were inaccuracies. We know what a stickler Don was in these matters. He would have sued the chap and made him take the book off the shelves.
Secondly, Perry writes at the beginning of the book as "Acknowledgments"
"My thanks go to Sir Donald Bradman for granting me the interviews that formed the basis of this book. I wish also to acknowledge his wife, Lady Jessie Bradman, whose insights help give perspective on her husband, and the events and issues of their exceptional lives. Not to interview her is to miss a vital part of the Bradman greatness and achievement.....
"Of the hundreds of questions put to him, he let only one go through to the keeper _ was he for or against Australia becoming a republic? I give my own considered guess on his attitude in the last chapter but I could be way off the mark
"Often when I thought a question might be difficult or awkward for him, he totally surprised me with his answer."
"Of the hundreds of questions put to him, he let only one go through to the keeper _ was he for or against Australia becoming a republic? I give my own considered guess on his attitude in the last chapter but I could be way off the mark
"Often when I thought a question might be difficult or awkward for him, he totally surprised me with his answer."
No, I do not doubt the veracity of his claim. I am very skeptical about these things and would have been cynical were it published after the Don's demise.
neville cardus
International Debutant
Your fascination with that volume has everything to do with your haphazard mode of reading it. Had you started from the beginning, I daresay, you would have found it soporific.
Perry has a style from which he is all but incapable of deviating. The best part of his book (based as it is primarily on scorecard exegesis) is the final chapter, in which he expounds his subject's post-playing (and scorecardless) affairs. There, at least, Perry draws considerably on the interviews of which he is so proud.
Oh, and keep an eye out for the yarn about Braddles's refusal to smile for the shutter -- irony at its best, that.
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neville cardus
International Debutant
There is a prosaic humdrum to his match descriptions, which are dilated in the most self-consciously conformist prose imaginable. It often appears that he is trying to mimic Ralph Barker -- without the latter's depth of research.
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neville cardus
International Debutant
neville cardus
International Debutant
A lovely book by a lovely man. He sent me a signed copy free of charge.
stumpski
International Captain
Well that was a nice gesture, I've just been reading your review by the way. I didn't mind shelling out a modest sum for it as it's one I've been seeking for a while now. The book seller in question is always at Kent's home matches (in the Championship, at least) and I usually stop by for a chat, and nearly always end up buying something. I tend to take cash rather than cheque book with me though, so I don't overstretch myself.
Now if I could just find Stephen Chalke's follow up to Runs in the Memory, his book on county cricket in the 60s ...
Now if I could just find Stephen Chalke's follow up to Runs in the Memory, his book on county cricket in the 60s ...
neville cardus
International Debutant
And you're still alive to tell the tale? Gordon Bennett.
If I could just find any book bearing Chalke's name...
The depth of cricketing philistinism here is appalling. What little reading I do nowadays is entirely athenaeum-abetted.
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SJS
Hall of Fame Member
My 'haphazard mode of reading' also has to do with the HUGE (hundreds) of books that I buy (and have been buying for last thirty years) and the relatively little time I have had to read them till 18 months back when I decided to retire to do the things I haven't found the time to do viz reading, going to the mountains and playing cricket.
I have too much to catch up and not too much time left in which to do it and literally dozens of books a week that I add to those I must buy
Life was so much simpler when I had hardly any money to buy more than one book at a time (with large gaps between them), playing cricket and reading were the only things that occupied my time (studying did not extend to after school hours). I 'wasted' thirty years of my life trying to find happiness in making a successful career in the corporate world and lost precious time doing the simple things that would have given me all the happiness I would need for a lifetime.
Then one day, my younger brother, a psychiatrist, came to India (from England where he is a Professor), saw me at work, pulled me away to my house, did a small eye-opening 'experiment' with me and 'hit me on the head with a hammer'
I retired and am trying to catch up with lost time and am completely 'haphazard' and deliriously happy
neville cardus
International Debutant
For the record (just in case it requires amelioration), I was not being hostile -- not to you and certainly not to your reading style. It would be hypocritical of me to pelt scorn on your haphazardry.
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neville cardus
International Debutant
That really is one of the most touching posts that I have ever read. As I am about to begin my thirty years' wasted life, some experimental head-to-hammer contact would probably do me good. Care to relay your psychological lessons?My 'haphazard mode of reading' also has to do with the HUGE (hundreds) of books that I buy (and have been buying for last thirty years) and the relatively little time I have had to read them till 18 months back when I decided to retire to do the things I haven't found the time to do viz reading, going to the mountains and playing cricket.
I have too much to catch up and not too much time left in which to do it and literally dozens of books a week that I add to those I must buy
Life was so much simpler when I had hardly any money to buy more than one book at a time (with large gaps between them), playing cricket and reading were the only things that occupied my time (studying did not extend to after school hours). I 'wasted' thirty years of my life trying to find happiness in making a successful career in the corporate world and lost precious time doing the simple things that would have given me all the happiness I would need for a lifetime.
Then one day, my younger brother, a psychiatrist, came to India (from England where he is a Professor), saw me at work, pulled me away to my house, did a small eye-opening 'experiment' with me and 'hit me on the head with a hammer'
I retired and am trying to catch up with lost time and am completely 'haphazard' and deliriously happy
fredfertang
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Thank god I am not the only one with such an ambition - as soon as my library is complete I shall give it all up and start reading them - before then SJS are you able to give any advice as to how to get out of print cricket books that are published on the sub-continent? Chopra's biog of Vishy, Baloch's memoir of Wallis Mathias and Kardar's book on the Inaugural Tests are proving impossible to find in the UK or on those corners of the net where i look
SJS
Hall of Fame Member
Okay.
About five years ago, my brother (he is 11 years younger) came to meet me at my factory at Daman. I was spending most of my waking hours at 'work' when at the factory so he spent time with me by sitting across the table in my large cabin or at the visitors sofa kept at the far end of the room. At the end of the second day, he told me he was very worried about me.
On my asking why he told me I was not 'living' right and doing great injustice to myself (remember he did not even mention my family).
I told him that being a psychiatrist, he was just seeing a problem where none existed and that I loved nothing more than my work. He disagreed and asked me to get up and come with me. We went back to the company guest house where I used to stay when visiting the works.
He gave me a piece of paper and asked me to reply in writing to whatever he said.
Then he gave me a hypothetical situation in which he informed me that I was suffering from a terminal disease which was completely incurable. That I would die in exactly six months from that day. The good news being that during these six months I would enjoy perfect health and be able to lead a normal active life.
Then he asked, that given this hypothetical scenario, what would I do immediately, tomorrow, next week and for the rest of the six months till my death. He asked me to think about it if I wanted and let me know the next day. But I was very clear about it ans said I could tell him right away.
He asked me to write it down and this is what I wrote.
1. I would immediately inform my Board of Directors of my immediate resignation from the position of the Managing Director of the Company and ask them to make arrangements to relieve me within the week.
2. I would use that week to settle all my financial affairs, make my will, inform my close family of my decisions
3. I would, at the end of the week, move to the mountains (a valley really) and live there for the rest of my days.
4. I would play cricket every single day of whats left of my life.
5. I would read all the books I have been wanting to read and haven't been able to.
There was some other small stuff but this was the most relevant.
My brother took the paper and said."Ok. So clearly, cricket, being close to the mountains and reading are the three greatest joys that you think life has to offer. Interesting. Tell me, when was the last time you took a 2-3 weeks holiday and went off to the mountains"
"About fifteen years ago", I said.
"I see, and when did you last play cricket (except in the backyard with small kids)."
"Twenty years ago.", I replied getting an idea of what was coming.
"And when was the last time you read a book, not a thin paper back but a big fat book from cover to cover, in a few days or a reasonable time so as to maintain your interest and do justice to your reading"
"About ten years ago" I said sheepishly.
"I am amazed," he said, " You seem to be saying, from what you have written on this paper that these things are so precious to you that when so little is left of your life, you will spend bulk of your time in these activities and yet in twenty years, in the prime of your life, you seem to have ignored them altogether. How come ? I don't get it"
"Why, I just dont have the time" I protested, " My work in running my company just doesn't allow me any time"
"But from the first point on this paper, I can see that this 'work' of yours is the least important thing in your life. Its the first thing you want to give up when time is running out and is to be rationed. Then how come you have been avoiding, for more than half of your adult life, that which clearly is the closest to your heart and squandering away your time doing that which clearly is the least .
"Do you think that you are going to be so lucky that someone will come and warn you six months before you are stricken or die, so that you can get at least half a year of joy from living. No my dear, you will just go. Just like that...without any warning...with all these unfulfilled desires, these trips to the mountains, the pleasure of those cover drives even if in the nets and the reading of the lovely books that fill the library in your house will not be the pleasures that you will live to enjoy.
"Chances are you will be too old to play cricket, too old to climb those mountain sides and take those long walks in the woods and who knows even your eyesight may fail you."
"What do you think you are doing. If someone took it upon him to make you unhappy, he could not do a better job than you are doing yourself, have been doing it for such a large part of your life and, whats worse, you dont even realise it"
It hit me on the head like a hammer.
I decided there and then to take early retirement and while it took me a couple of years to do it, I did inform my Board of Directors within a week that I wanted to leave and the decision was irreversible. Rest was just a matter of negotiations, grooming my successor, settling my financial affairs including selling my stakes in the company which was very substantial amount of money and my inheritance for my children. I still did it at an age when I could have gone on for at leat another ten years, maybe longer.
Thats it, my dear.
archie mac
International Coach
fredfertang
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I have read all this thread now and had a good luck round the site - an impressive piece of work I have to say
Books are my passion and that's clearly shared by a few others here so I am pleased I found you
One book I am surprised doesn't get a mention, bearing in mind that the guvnor has adopted the Noblest Roman as his soubriquet, is Michael Down's biography of the great man - of course its much easier to write a decent sporting biography when you choose a subject, like Archie, who packed so much into his life but even taking into account it was a project that could hardly fail for that reason the chapter dealing with the victory at Hastings of MacLaren's all amateur XI over Armstrong's lot is utterly compelling
Books are my passion and that's clearly shared by a few others here so I am pleased I found you
One book I am surprised doesn't get a mention, bearing in mind that the guvnor has adopted the Noblest Roman as his soubriquet, is Michael Down's biography of the great man - of course its much easier to write a decent sporting biography when you choose a subject, like Archie, who packed so much into his life but even taking into account it was a project that could hardly fail for that reason the chapter dealing with the victory at Hastings of MacLaren's all amateur XI over Armstrong's lot is utterly compelling