Rodney Ulyate's Blog - Posts Tagged "book-reviews"

As sent:

Dear Sir,

It is not the done thing to whine about bad reviews; less still is it kosher to quetch about kind ones. But Richard Whitehead (The Cricketer, December 2013) labours under a misapprehension. It sorely needs correcting.

His review of Masterly Batting: 100 Great Test Innings (edited by Patrick Ferriday and Dave Wilson, and available at fine bookstores everywhere) opens with the claim that this collaboration proved “damaging to personal friendships.” He cites as evidence the book’s acknowledgements, which “include three would-be co-editors—who fell by the wayside during the list’s assembly, making it sound more like going on the road with the Rolling Stones in the early 1970s than writing a cricket book.”

I am likened not infrequently to a young Keith Richards. (The comparison does him credit.) But it had never been suggested, before Mr Whitehead suggested it, that I shared the great man’s powers of separation. What do the acknowledgements say? Only this: “In the beginning we were five and without the efforts of Martin Chandler, Sean Ehlers and Rodney Ulyate the research would never have finished.” That’s it. And what it conveys, transparently, is not that five editors were whittled down to two, but that the project began, before the enlistment of the book’s celebrity essayists, with just us five. There was never any question of expanding the editorial office.

We disagreed about much, but we argued very little, and fought not at all, and we treasure the experience. I request of The Cricketer, on my colleagues’ behalf, that this information be conveyed to its misinformed readership, and that Mr Whitehead's wrist be slapped.

Fraternally,
Rodney Ulyate

As published:

Richard Whitehead's review (December) of Masterly Batting (edited by Patrick Ferriday and Dave Wilson) claims that this collaboration proved “damaging to personal friendships”. He cites as evidence the book’s acknowledgments, which “include three would-be co-editors who fell by the wayside during the list’s assembly, making it sound more like going on the road with the Rolling Stones in the early 1970s than writing a cricket book”. What do the acknowledgments say? “In the beginning we were five and without the efforts of Martin Chandler, Sean Ehlers and Rodney Ulyate the research would never have finished.” What that conveys is not that five editors were whittled down to two but that the project began, before the enlistment of the essayists, with just us five. We disagreed about much in assembling the book but we argued very little and fought not at all. In fact we treasure the experience.

Rodney Ulyate
Co-editor

Dear Sir,

You published in your January edition a heavily-redacted letter by your humble servant. It complains of the assertion by Richard Whitehead, in your December 2013 edition, that I fell out with my collaborators on Masterly Batting: 100 Great Test Innings over editorial responsibilities. The letter points out and proves, inter alia, that this is a falsehood. It also makes the point (in a passage you chose not to publish) that there was never any question of my joining Patrick Ferriday and Dave Wilson in the editorial berth. I signed my letter "Rodney Ulyate," but in your magazine I appear thus: "Rodney Ulyate, co-editor." Are you trying to make me look silly?

Rodney Ulyate
Mere Co-Author