Turning Over the Pebbles

Peter Kettle | 8:55am BST 18 June 2023

Published: 2023
Pages: 290
Author: Brearley, Mike
Publisher: Constable
Rating: 4 stars

Having recently written a couple of pieces on Mike Brearley’s cricket career, I much looked forward to this volume appearing, and in short haven’t been disappointed. My articles were to counter Mark Peel’s unfavourable assessment of his unfulfilled potential as a Test batsman, which I estimated was sufficient to raise his average, predominantly as an opener, into the low- to mid-30s (comparable with the high-30s for a middle order role); and to suggest that he can rightly be regarded as a genuine Test all-rounder and be bracketed with Imran Khan, Ian Botham, Richard Hadlee and Kapil Dev when the impact of his captaincy skills are compared with their bowling deeds.*

These memoirs, consisting of 14 chapters, contain wide-ranging recollections and reflections on his life – “the directions taken and conflicts faced” – with new takes on the original experience from his present vantage point. In addition to cricket, among the big subjects are his immersion with philosophy and philosophers (ancient Greeks, Wittgenstein and other moderns), the theatre, music and religion – chiefly Christianity. There are also thoughts on his aging, a serious illness and the prospect of death.

There is plenty on his third career (after cricket and lecturing in psychology) – psychoanalysis. How he gravitated slowly towards it, being a field uninhabited by past or present family members; and his initial training for it alongside professional cricket. Then, in setting down a good deal of his own personal experience as an analyst, Brearley addresses the lay person’s curiosity. What is it that the analysts actually do; what do patients get out of it; does the process entail brainwashing or conversion therapy? The reasons are given for patients not being face to face with their analyst, who sits behind unseen. (I’m still not convinced it is for the best; there are chilling similarities with the way that national anti-crime organisations operate!). The views of some of the inspiring figures are discussed, in particular Freud, Melanie Klein and Wilfred Bion.

A strong merit is the depth in which various issues are aired, and the ability to articulate and appreciate different points of view other than his own – rarely is he opinionated or intransigent. Among those considered are the clash between sports lovers and culture lovers over which is the higher intrinsic value, the benefits or otherwise of studying Classics at university, and different interpretations of literary writers. He was sceptical about the attractions of working for the Civil Service, yet allowed himself to be interviewed for the position of a spy based overseas!

Brearley gives his appreciation at some length, and with much sophistication, of some of the great novelists he has read and of various composers of classical music. Novels and music each get a chapter to themselves. That on music is wryly headed ”Hayden’s Duck Quartet” – Private Eye reckoning this was his most loved piece as it reflected his scoring propensity!**  He expands on this, saying that sometimes letters arrive asking for the opus number for this little–known work. And gardening has become a pleasure – cultivating a well stocked garden and a high quality lawn. 

Cricket is mainly dealt with in Chapter 8 (spanning 28 pages). Although having written extensively on the game and his role in it, this material has a fresh as well as an easy flowing feel: meeting some of the historical greats of the game, anecdotes about some of its appealing characters, the earthy wisdom of his schoolboy coach Jim Sims, memorable ripostes on and off the field, and his anxieties and insecurities as a batsman which have been manifest in his dreams.

Then, briefer, his own playing career. Among the highlights is the dream start made for Cambridge University, batting in the middle order, lasting through the initial eight matches against county sides and the visiting Australians from late-April to early-June (posting 696 runs, at an average of 53.4 from 16 innings – only four in single figures, with 3 not outs). And after difficult times as the “young usurper” taking on the captaincy of Middlesex in 1971, high success in his last seven seasons in the job: Championship winners three times outright and once jointly, plus winners of the Gillette one-day competition twice. Aesthetics enter, as with a tribute to Philippe Edmonds’ spin bowling (left arm orthodox) – among county colleagues, this was a rare case of their personalities clashing. (See also Brearley’s tribute to the art of Bishan Bedi’s spin bowling in his collection of essays, On Cricket.)

Throughout these Memoirs, there is a refreshing use of language being employed in the way of everyday expression (perhaps a nod to Wittgenstein?). Liberal use is made of abbreviations such as: it wasn’t only, I don’t, I can’t recall, I’d read, we’ve all…Perhaps it is something that Brearley absolutely insisted on. Other publishers ought to follow suit: it’s far overdue!

Does Brearley succeed in his aims for these thought provoking Memoirs? These are to know his actual self better, including traits that are difficult to acknowledge or accept (“to be not too much a stranger to myself”) (p 3-5); and also to let his grandchildren know something of his life experiences that would interest them (when older and able to get to grips with the material) (p 287). Yes to the first aim: he does get brutally honest about his failings in quite a number of places – such as a tendency to exaggeratedly over-rate and under-rate himself, the former affecting his performance at interviews, the latter as a batsman in the atmosphere of Test matches – “becoming tense and constrained…playing with less freedom than against the same bowlers in county cricket.”

And as to the second of his aims: presumably, yes!

For cricket enthusiasts wanting to know Mike Brearley in the round, this book is highly recommended, even though in various places it (perhaps inevitably) demands a good deal of the reader. Hopefully, it won’t be a case like Colman’s mustard – highly popular, but more left untasted than tasted.

*Another Look at “Cricketing Caesar”, 9 August 2020, Cricket Web internet site; and The Cricket Statistician, Spring 2022, pages 22-31.

**In Test matches, Brearley’s incidence of dismissals without scoring was 9.1%, being at the high end of the 85 most prolific run getters in Test history (as at end of 2013), but by no means unusual for prominent Test batsmen. It is comfortingly close to Bradman who stands at 8.7%.