A Field Of Tents & Waving Colours: Neville Cardus Writing on Cricket

‘Before him,’ wrote John Arlott, ‘cricket was reported … with him it was for the first time appreciated, felt, and imaginatively described.’ Neville Cardus was the greatest cricket writer of all: the man who invented cricket writing as we know it. Now, to coincide with the publication of a major new biography, The Last Romantic by Duncan Hamilton, here is a collection of his very best writing on cricket. Cardus was for many years cricket correspondent of the (then Manchester) Guardian, but wrote for a host of other publications including Wisden. Before him, cricket writing too often meant drybones match reports full of statistics and jargon. Cardus wrote about the event: the sylvan ground, the emotion of watching Victor Trumper in full flow. Published in Ashes year, this handsome volume includes Cardus on Don Bradman, Learie Constantine, Denis Compton and Richie Benaud, at Roses matches and the arcadian cricket festival at Dover beneath Shakespeare Cliff, seeing the Australians defeated at Eastbourne, and of course at the home of cricket, Lord’s. It is an essential possession for every lover of fine writing on the Summer Game.