A Field of Tents and Waving Colours: Neville Cardus Writing on Cricket

by Neville Cardus, Gideon Haigh (Introduction)

‘The perfect read on a summer’s afternoon in the garden, or, better still, on the boundary’, The Cricketer Before Neville Cardus, there was no such thing as cricket writing. As John Arlott said, the game was merely reported. With Cardus, ‘it was for the first time appreciated, felt, and imaginatively described’. With The Great Romantic, Duncan Hamilton’s acclaimed biography, the 2019 William Hill Sports Book of the Year, what better introduction to the greatest cricket writer of all than all his most evocative, most memorable writing in one volume? Here, then, is Cardus on Don Bradman, Victor Trumper, 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. ‘Thoughtfully arranged, and covering a span from the honeymoon 1920s to the often grumpy-old-man 60s and 70s, it includes many of Cardus’s greatest hits’, David Kynaston, Guardian ‘A handsome introduction to Cardus… In the years ahead, when our cricket is given increasingly to the T20 thrash and something called The Hundred, we shall revisit Cardus to restore our spirits, and very possibly to revive our souls’, Michael Henderson, The Critic

Genres: Sports

185 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 25, 2019

About the author

Sir John Frederick Neville Cardus CBE (3 April 1888 – 28 February 1975) was an English writer and critic, best known for his writing on music and cricket. For many years, he wrote for The Manchester Guardian. He was untrained in music, and his style of criticism was subjective, romantic and personal, in contrast with his critical contemporary Ernest Newman. Before becoming a cricket writer, he had been a cricket coach at a boys' school. His writing about the game was innovative, turning what had previously been in general a purely factual form into vivid description and criticism.

Reviews

[Vijay Kumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very thoughtful way to know and read some of the stuff written by first cricket writer in truest sense. At many places you can see why is Cardus rated so highly be it talking about Trumper or voyage to Australia for the ashes. This sort of writing makes you fall in love with the game of cricket time and again. Truly a wonderful read for those who like to read about historical events or great players from the past.