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Silent Revolutions: Writings on Cricket History
Gideon Haigh’s first collection of cricket pieces, Game for Anything, was published by Aurum in 2004 and soon sold out. This is the follow-up, also featuring a striking and off-beat cover picture. Since Game for Anything appeared, Haigh has published two more books with his book on the remarkable 2005 Ashes series and his preceding coverage for the Guardian really made his name as the best writer currently covering the game, and sold extremely well. And his collaboration with Wisden on Peter the Cat and other Unexpected Obituaries from Wisden has already been hailed as a delightful and covetable little volume. Meanwhile Haigh’s earlier Mystery Spinner is now acknowledged as one of the classics about the game, and his hilarious diary of a club cricket season, Many a Slip, continues to sell and reprint. In this new collection of cricket writing Haigh ranges from tributes on the death of great players like Bradman and Miller, essays on perennial cause celebres like Bodyline, profiles of modern virtuosi like Viv Richards and Steve Waugh, and whimsical disquisitions on everything from stumps and boxes to wicketkeeping and appealing. Sure to be well-reviewed, it will be bought by Haigh’s ever-growing band of admirers.
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First published January 1, 2006
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About the author
Gideon Haigh
101 books111 followersGideon Clifford Jeffrey Davidson Haigh (born 29 December 1965) is an English-born Australian journalist, who writes about sport (especially cricket) and business. He was born in London, raised in Geelong, and now lives in Melbourne.
Haigh began his career as a journalist, writing on business for The Age newspaper from 1984 to 1992 and for The Australian from 1993 to 1995. He has since contributed to over 70 newspapers and magazines,[2] both on business topics as well as on sport, mostly cricket. He wrote regularly for The Guardian during the 2006-07 Ashes series and has featured also in The Times and the Financial Times.
Haigh has authored 19 books and edited seven more. Of those on a cricketing theme, his historical works includes The Cricket War and Summer Game, his biographies The Big Ship (of Warwick Armstrong) and Mystery Spinner (of Jack Iverson), the latter pronounced The Cricket Society's "Book of the Year", short-listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year and dubbed "a classic" by The Sunday Times;[3] anthologies of his writings Ashes 2005 and Game for Anything, as well as Many a Slip, the humorous diary of a club cricket season, and The Vincibles, his story of the South Yarra Cricket Club, of which he is life member and perennate vice-president and for whose newsletter he has written about cricket the longest. He has also published several books on business-related topics, such as The Battle for BHP, Asbestos House (which dilates the James Hardie asbestos controversy) and Bad Company, an examination of the CEO phenomenon. He mostly publishes with Aurum Press.
Haigh was appointed editor of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack Australia for 1999–2000 and 2000–01. Since March 2006, he has been a regular panellist on the ABC television sports panel show Offsiders. He was also a regular co-host on The Conversation Hour with Jon Faine on 774 ABC Melbourne until near the end of 2006.
Haigh has been known to be critical of what he regards as the deification of Sir Donald Bradman and "the cynical exploitation of his name by the mediocre and the greedy".[4] He did so in a September 1998 article in Wisden Cricket Monthly, entitled "Sir Donald Brandname". Haigh has been critical of Bradman's biographer Roland Perry, writing in The Australian that Perry's biography was guilty of "glossing over or ignoring anything to Bradman's discredit".[4]
Haigh won the John Curtin Prize for Journalism in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in 2006[5] for his essay "Information Idol: How Google is making us stupid",[6] which was published in The Monthly magazine. He asserted that the quality of discourse could suffer as a source of information's worth is judged by Google according to its previous degree of exposure to the status quo. He believes the pool of information available to those using Google as their sole avenue of inquiry is inevitably limited and possibly compromised due to covert commercial influences.
He blogged on the 2009 Ashes series for The Wisden Cricketer.[7]
On 24 October 2012 he addressed the tenth Bradman Oration in Melbourne.
Haigh began his career as a journalist, writing on business for The Age newspaper from 1984 to 1992 and for The Australian from 1993 to 1995. He has since contributed to over 70 newspapers and magazines,[2] both on business topics as well as on sport, mostly cricket. He wrote regularly for The Guardian during the 2006-07 Ashes series and has featured also in The Times and the Financial Times.
Haigh has authored 19 books and edited seven more. Of those on a cricketing theme, his historical works includes The Cricket War and Summer Game, his biographies The Big Ship (of Warwick Armstrong) and Mystery Spinner (of Jack Iverson), the latter pronounced The Cricket Society's "Book of the Year", short-listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year and dubbed "a classic" by The Sunday Times;[3] anthologies of his writings Ashes 2005 and Game for Anything, as well as Many a Slip, the humorous diary of a club cricket season, and The Vincibles, his story of the South Yarra Cricket Club, of which he is life member and perennate vice-president and for whose newsletter he has written about cricket the longest. He has also published several books on business-related topics, such as The Battle for BHP, Asbestos House (which dilates the James Hardie asbestos controversy) and Bad Company, an examination of the CEO phenomenon. He mostly publishes with Aurum Press.
Haigh was appointed editor of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack Australia for 1999–2000 and 2000–01. Since March 2006, he has been a regular panellist on the ABC television sports panel show Offsiders. He was also a regular co-host on The Conversation Hour with Jon Faine on 774 ABC Melbourne until near the end of 2006.
Haigh has been known to be critical of what he regards as the deification of Sir Donald Bradman and "the cynical exploitation of his name by the mediocre and the greedy".[4] He did so in a September 1998 article in Wisden Cricket Monthly, entitled "Sir Donald Brandname". Haigh has been critical of Bradman's biographer Roland Perry, writing in The Australian that Perry's biography was guilty of "glossing over or ignoring anything to Bradman's discredit".[4]
Haigh won the John Curtin Prize for Journalism in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in 2006[5] for his essay "Information Idol: How Google is making us stupid",[6] which was published in The Monthly magazine. He asserted that the quality of discourse could suffer as a source of information's worth is judged by Google according to its previous degree of exposure to the status quo. He believes the pool of information available to those using Google as their sole avenue of inquiry is inevitably limited and possibly compromised due to covert commercial influences.
He blogged on the 2009 Ashes series for The Wisden Cricketer.[7]
On 24 October 2012 he addressed the tenth Bradman Oration in Melbourne.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 18, 2024
The best and most prolific writer on cricket of the modern era, who writes in as delectable a style as VVS Laxman's batting. Equally adept at cricket history as well as investigations of the minutiae of cricketing equipment, GH is the man for the avid cricket-loving reader.
January 19, 2013
For a country so enamoured with sport as Australia is, it's often been lamented that we lack the great chroniclers of it that the Americans have been so blessed with. Gideon Haigh is the one glorious exception.
As a lover of cricket and writing, at the end of each days play my first thought is always, 'I wonder what Gideon thinks of this'.
Silent revolutions is a collection of essays and articles about cricket spanning all manner of minutiae from rules to equipment and of course the personalities both famed and forgotten.
Whether deconstructing or celebrating, Haigh is both an exquisite writer and passionate fan and Silent Revolutions is the perfect place to get acquainted with Haigh or indeed, the game of cricket itself.
As a lover of cricket and writing, at the end of each days play my first thought is always, 'I wonder what Gideon thinks of this'.
Silent revolutions is a collection of essays and articles about cricket spanning all manner of minutiae from rules to equipment and of course the personalities both famed and forgotten.
Whether deconstructing or celebrating, Haigh is both an exquisite writer and passionate fan and Silent Revolutions is the perfect place to get acquainted with Haigh or indeed, the game of cricket itself.
May 16, 2023
Superb collection of articles written by Gideon Haigh in 2004. His command of facts and his entertaining vignettes make the articles a delight to read. Gideon Haigh is best cricket writer Australia has produced. All his books on cricket that I have read have been entertaining and enlightening.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews