Cricket Books

[SJS]

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

I presume you are looking for
AH Kardar's : Soldiers of Fortune

In UK you can but it from

Catalyst Books
Catsborough Cottage
Catsborough Cross
Monkleigh, Nr Bideford, DEV, United Kingdom
EX39 5LE​

Tel : 01805 624056

I am afraid I cant help you with the other two.

 

[SJS]

Aha.

My good friend Jeremy in Brighton, Victoria has today sent me a brand new "Art of Cricket" by Bradman. My old one was a first edition and getting in pretty bad shape. Its one of the first cricket books I owned.

 

[stumpski]

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

Welcome to the site Fred, I recognise your name from the Wisden site. There are some interesting threads here if you ignore all the stuff about Twenty20 and the 'who's better? Lara or Tendulkar?' (etc) types. This is one of the best but we devotees have to keep rescuing it from obscurity. I recently got round to reading the MacLaren biog by the way, some 20 years after being given it for a birthday.

 

[fredfertang]

Thanks tailender - or should I stick to stumpski? - its a bit different here from www.wisdens.org - a nice homely little forum compared with this monolith !!

I cant imagine there is a better thread than this here - I am a very keen collector - Wisdens too but in "the other place" too many have their Wisden blinkers on - as I have commented there how you can collect Wisden and not thereby get diverted towards the rest of the bibliography of this great game is utterly beyond me.

Thanks for the tip on the Kardar book SJS but that one I suspect is a book about history/politics rather than cricket - the one I am after is called "The Inaugural Tests" and was an account of the first India/Pakistan series - Chris Saunders had a nice jacketed copy signed by Kardar himself a couple of years ago for £150 - sadly I dithered and it was gone - won't make that mistake again!!!

 

[pasag]

Ten Great Bowlers

-----

Welcome to the forum fredfertang.

 

[archie mac]

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

Welcome, can I interest you in joining our book review team?

If yes contact CW and James will put you contact with yours truly

I have read the Down effort and quite enjoyed it, I am waiting for a review by Stumpy. It was sad that he struggled to find anyone to publish it, which says a lot about what crap people want to buy from the books shops, ala Shane Warne's 100 best pick up lines, and 100 best players

 

[SJS]

Thanks for the tip on the Kardar book SJS but that one I suspect is a book about history/politics rather than cricket - the one I am after is called "The Inaugural Tests" and was an account of the first India/Pakistan series - Chris Saunders had a nice jacketed copy signed by Kardar himself a couple of years ago for £150 - sadly I dithered and it was gone - won't make that mistake again!!!

If you know the publisher, I can give it a try here (in India)

 

[fredfertang]

Thanks SJS - i appreciate that - According to what I have seen it was published by "Asad Ali of Asad & Co, Karachi" in 1954

 

[SJS]

Ten Great Bowlers

One of the first great cricket books I read.

Fantastic read. You are absolutely correct in what you say in that last sentence of the review - its an absolute must for those who are not familiar with cricket of those times.

 

[archie mac]

One of the first great cricket books I read.

Fantastic read. You are absolutely correct in what you say in that last sentence of the review - its an absolute must for those who are not familiar with cricket of those times.

Yes, it is a great read, it has been on the shelf for many years, and it was not until Neville Cardus (the poster on here not the real McCoy), suggested it was a great read, and then you (SJS) also said it was a great read, that I thought I should make the effort to read it

 

[neville cardus]

Yes, it is a great read, it has been on the shelf for many years, and it was not until Neville Cardus (the poster on here not the real McCoy)

Now just you listen here, Mr MacLaren...

 

[neville cardus]

Thats it, my dear.

Thank you very much, sir. If I believed in smilies, they'd be rapturous right now.

 

[neville cardus]

Is Barker still alive? I have been trying to track him down for a number of months now.

 

[archie mac]

Now just you listen here, Mr MacLaren...

Is Barker still alive? I have been trying to track him down for a number of months now.

Noblest Roman to you Nev

No idea, I am sure they would have mentioned it in Wisden if he was dead. I know he wrote a book in 1987, so I could check it up in Wisden if you would like?

 

[SJS]

Noblest Roman to you Nev

No idea, I am sure they would have mentioned it in Wisden if he was dead. I know he wrote a book in 1987, so I could check it up in Wisden if you would like?

His latest books (both on aviation) were published in 2002 and 2005 so I assume he might be still alive.

 

[SJS]

His latest books (both on aviation) were published in 2002 and 2005 so I assume he might be still alive.

...though in his nineties

 

[fredfertang]

I believe Ralph Barker is indeed still alive in which case he is 91 - in view of the quality of his previous efforts it is rather sad he hasn't written a cricket book since 1987 and seems to have concentrated his efforts on aviation books (bloody ridiculous really - if men were meant to fly we'd have feathers - has nobody told him that?)

The "companion" volume to "Ten Great Bowlers" (wherein the chapters on Bart King and Tom Richardson are the best in my view) is called "Ten Great Innings" and tucked away in that volume lies an account of Harold Gimblett's debut century of such peerless quality that not even as fine a writer as David Foot, in his magnificent biography of Gimblett, attempted to compete with it.

 

[archie mac]

I am reading Grovel atm, it is about the 1976 WI tour of England, great stuff, if you have a chance pick up a copy

 

[pasag]

Stuart's review of Mike Hussey's 'Mr Cricket'

 

[stumpski]

I am reading Grovel atm, it is about the 1976 WI tour of England, great stuff, if you have a chance pick up a copy

I've seen it around once or twice, waiting for the paperback though. Can't be long now!