Why am I passionate about this?

A historian interested in the ‘cultural war’ over the legitimate form, function and meaning of sport, it is strange to look back and consider how ignorant I was of the class and cultural dynamics that shaped cricket in England until I began studying sport in my early thirties. Why, for instance, was English cricket ‘posh’ when compared to Australia? And why, within England, did the North and South have completely different cricket cultures and regional identities? These were questions I began to address in earnest and, a short twenty years later, I believe I finally have the answers. I could not have done it without these books. Enjoy! 


I wrote

Different Class: The Untold Story of English Cricket

By Duncan Stone,

Book cover of Different Class: The Untold Story of English Cricket

What is my book about?

In 1963, the West Indian Marxist C. L. R. James (see below) posed a deceptively benign question: ‘What do they…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Beyond a Boundary

Duncan Stone Why did I love this book?

Arguably the greatest sports book ever written, it would be impossible to exclude James’ classic study for many reasons. Firstly, assuming you discount the broader sweep of Richard Hoggart’s Uses of Literacy (1957), it was the first book to cite sport as an important realm of historical enquiry. 

James weaves personal biography and the development and organisation of cricket in the West Indies, to demonstrate how these reflected the colonialism and racial hierarchies that shaped life in the West Indies. Cricket is, therefore, inherently political: As James states himself, the game had "plunged me into politics long before I was aware of it. [And] when I did turn to politics I did not have too much to learn." An essential book for anyone with an interest in class, race, and society.

By C.L.R. James,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked Beyond a Boundary as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This new edition of C. L. R. James's classic Beyond a Boundary celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of one of the greatest books on sport and culture ever written. Named one of the Top 50 Sports Books of All Time by Sports Illustrated "Beyond a Boundary ...should find its place on the team with Izaak Walton, Ivan Turgenev, A. J. Liebling, and Ernest Hemingway."-Derek Walcott, The New York Times Book Review "As a player, James the writer was able to see in cricket a metaphor for art and politics, the collective experience providing a focus for group effort and individual performance...[In]…


Book cover of The Willow Wand: Some Cricket Myths Explored

Duncan Stone Why did I love this book?

Although best known for his A Social History of English Cricket (1998), The Willow Wand is, for me, Birley’s best cricket book. I imagine I’d have enjoyed Birley’s company for he not only writes with great humour, he understood exclusivity was not the same thing as quality and he burst the elitist bubble that had long surrounded the game in England by dissecting the game’s most treasured and fervently protected myths and personalities with forensic precision. 

Be it imperialism, the game’s most revered chronicler Neville Cardus or, even, the game’s premier icon W. G. Grace, Birley leaves no stone unturned, and he even alludes to the distinct regional identities that define the game in the North and South of England, which formed the basis of my own book.

By Derek Birley,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Willow Wand as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The classic book on cricket.


Book cover of Anyone But England: Cricket and the National Malaise

Duncan Stone Why did I love this book?

If James and Birley upset the game’s establishment, the impact of Marqusee’s Anyone But England was on an altogether different level. Like James, Marqusee was a Marxist. But where James pulled his punches and has, regrettably, been co-opted by English cricket’s establishment, there is very little danger of Marqusee ever suffering the same fate. One must only read his Wisden obituary to understand this. 

Suffice to say, Marqusee’s unflinching analysis exposed English cricket’s institutional hypocrisy, class discrimination, and racial prejudices long before the issues of elitism and racism became points of serious discussion in 2021. Considering this, it is a genuine tragedy that Marqusee and this book were not taken more seriously. Nevertheless, despite the passing decades, Anyone But England still packs a serious punch!

By Mike Marqusee,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Anyone But England as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This work is a timely exploration of the bonds which tie English cricket to the English nation as both face apparently inexorable decline. Mike Marqusee, an American who has lived in England for 20 years, turns the amused gaze of an outsider on to the idiosyncrasies of the English at play, delving into the interminable wrangles over coloured clothing, covered pitches and commercial sponsorship. Yet Marqusee also displays the knowledgability and passion of a dedicated cricket follower who has watched matches on four continents. His accounts of the origins of the game, its romance with the British Empire, and its…


Book cover of The Cricket War: The Story of Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket

Duncan Stone Why did I love this book?

It’s a small world as they say. And the world of cricket is undoubtedly smaller as I know Gideon. This said, I would defy any serious appraisal of cricket’s historical literature to exclude one of his many excellent books on the game. 

I have, however, chosen his first which covers one of the most momentous events in the game’s global history: the creation of a new competition called World Series Cricket (WSC) by the Australian TV mogul Kerry Packer that, ultimately, led to the game’s renaissance. As much as the story, and the various characters involved, are superbly researched the story of WSC, as Haigh acknowledges himself, "could just as easily be a text on television economics, or marketing, or sociology, even anthropology." It remains, therefore, a very important book.

By Gideon Haigh,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Cricket War as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One of The Times' 50 Greatest Sports Books

In May 1977, the cricket world awoke to discover that a thirty-nine-year-old Sydney Businessman called Kerry Packer had signed thirty-five elite international players for his own televised 'World Series'. The Cricket War is the definitive account of the split that changed the game on the field and on the screen.

In helmets, under lights, with white balls, and in coloured clothes, the outlaw armies of Ian Chappell, Tony Greig and Clive Lloyd fought a daily battle of survival. In boardrooms and courtrooms Packer and cricket's rulers fought a bitter war of nerves.…


Book cover of Cricket: A History of its Growth & Development throughout the World

Duncan Stone Why did I love this book?

Although a book that bites off more than it may comfortably chew, Bowen’s masterpiece could not be ignored. As the first (and only) attempt to tell the history of cricket on a global scale, Bowen’s analysis may appear, considering subsequent research, a tad superficial in places. However, as a point of reference, it is a remarkable – unique even – book that has belatedly been recognised as a classic. 

Why the delay? Bowen, as the game’s first maverick historian, was not only adept at exposing the inferior scholarship that then passed for cricket history, he also took great pleasure in baiting the establishment and those who thought they were part of it. As such, it is upon his shoulders, rather than James perhaps, that fellow ‘revisionists’ Birley, Marqusee, and myself stand upon.

By Rowland Bowen,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Cricket as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


Explore my book 😀

Different Class: The Untold Story of English Cricket

By Duncan Stone,

Book cover of Different Class: The Untold Story of English Cricket

What is my book about?

In 1963, the West Indian Marxist C. L. R. James (see below) posed a deceptively benign question: ‘What do they know of cricket, who only cricket know?’ A challenge to the public to re-consider the culture and meaning of cricket, my book suggests there is still a great deal to learn about the game and its development in England. 

 

This remains the case because the orthodox history of English cricket has been written from an elitist ‘top-down’ perspective. Therefore, in the spirit of E. P. Thompson, Different Class examines the game from the ‘bottom-up’. And, in doing so, it reveals more about the (un)changing nature of English society – and how it works – than any study of the so-called ‘first-class’ (professional) game ever could. 

Book cover of Beyond a Boundary
Book cover of The Willow Wand: Some Cricket Myths Explored
Book cover of Anyone But England: Cricket and the National Malaise

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No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944

By Rona Simmons,

Book cover of No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944

Rona Simmons Author Of No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I come by my interest in history and the years before, during, and after the Second World War honestly. For one thing, both my father and my father-in-law served as pilots in the war, my father a P-38 pilot in North Africa and my father-in-law a B-17 bomber pilot in England. Their histories connect me with a period I think we can still almost reach with our fingertips and one that has had a momentous impact on our lives today. I have taken that interest and passion to discover and write true life stories of the war—focusing on the untold and unheard stories often of the “Average Joe.”

Rona's book list on World War II featuring the average Joe

What is my book about?

October 24, 1944, is not a day of national remembrance. Yet, more Americans serving in World War II perished on that day than on any other single day of the war.

The narrative of No Average Day proceeds hour by hour and incident by incident while focusing its attention on ordinary individuals—clerks, radio operators, cooks, sailors, machinist mates, riflemen, and pilots and their air crews. All were men who chose to serve their country and soon found themselves in a terrifying and otherworldly place.

No Average Day reveals the vastness of the war as it reaches past the beaches in…

No Average Day: The 24 Hours of October 24, 1944

By Rona Simmons,

What is this book about?

October 24, 1944, is not a day of national remembrance. Yet, more Americans serving in World War II perished on that day than on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, or on June 6, 1944, when the Allies stormed the beaches of Normandy, or on any other single day of the war. In its telling of the events of October 24, No Average Day proceeds hour by hour and incident by incident. The book begins with Army Private First-Class Paul Miller's pre-dawn demise in the Sendai #6B Japanese prisoner of war camp. It concludes with the death…


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