A delightfully uplifting Australian novel about the joy of discovering your greatest potential.
In the Australian summer of 1984, in the small country town of Penguin Hill, Sergeant Roy Cooper is making a name for himself. He’s been batting for his local cricket club for decades — and he’s a statistical miracle. He’s overweight, he makes very few runs, he’s not pretty to watch, but he’s never been dismissed.
When local schoolgirl Cassie Midwinter discovers this feat, she decides to take the matter further. The remarkable story finds its way into the hands of Donna Garrett, a female sports columnist who’s forced to write under a male pseudonym to be taken seriously.
That summer, the West Indies are thrashing Australia, and the Australian people’s love of cricket has never been lower. But Donna’s columns on Roy Cooper capture the imagination of a nation, and soon there’s pressure to select him for the national team. This would see him playing at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, carrying the spirit of every small country town in Australia along with him. Could such a miracle actually happen?
This is sport, after all, and who doesn’t love a good story?
COOPER NOT OUT is a funny, heart-warming novel set within real events. It is a moving and highly original tale about friendship and belief, and the joy of discovering your greatest potential.
Justin Smith is a Melbourne writer, journalist and broadcaster. He’s a columnist with the Melbourne Herald Sun and a weekly guest on Channel Seven’s Sunrise program and Sky News.
Justin has had a long career in radio as a presenter and executive producer. He has hosted national programs, he was embedded with Australian troops in Afghanistan, and was the Drive host on Sydney’s 2UE. He’s won multiple awards for journalism and broadcasting.
A corker of a read, Justin Smith has hit a six with his heartwarming novel, Cooper Not Out.
When schoolgirl Cassie Midwinter discovers that her ‘uncle’ Roy Cooper has never been bowled, or run, out in his decades playing with the Penguin Hill Cricket Club she’s certain this makes him the best batsman in Australia, if not the world. Eager to share this astonishing achievement, Cassie writes to the Don Garrett, a newspaper columnist widely considered the nations expert on cricket. Don Garrett, who is really Donna Garrett writing under a pseudonym, is delighted by the story of an overweight country copper and his extraordinary statistical feat. With the Australian cricket team having suffered a series of defeats, as the new season approaches the country seems to have lost their enthusiasm for the sport. Donna’s article inspires the imagination of the nation, and while Roy is bemused by the ensuing attention, neither has any idea that it will eventually lead Roy to the crease of the MCG wearing the baggy green.
Cooper Not Out is set in the summer of 1984, a period when Australian cricket was struggling against the power of the West Indies team particularly in the wake of several of the game’s legends retiring. Though I never developed much affection for the game, cricket was part of my childhood, and I was effortlessly captured by nostalgia. My dad was (and still is) a fan, not only did he watch matches on tv, yelling ‘you bewdy’ in response to a spectacular catch or fallen wicket by the Australian team, he regularly attended any games held at the WACA, thanks to a box owned by his employer, during the late 70’s to mid 80’s. My memories are fairly vague, but I was dragged along to a few matches and met many members of the Australian cricket team including legends like Dennis Lillee, Rod Marsh, Greg Chappell, and Kim Hughes.
It’s against this dispiriting era of the sport that Smith introduces his unlikely hero, Ray Cooper. There’s so much uncomplicated joy in this story of an unassuming Aussie bloke from a dusty country town, a man with ‘no obvious skill or talent’ who nevertheless winds up batting for Australia. Even if you care nothing for cricket, you can’t help but like Roy, an old style country copper, humble and quiet, who shares a bath with his best mate every Sunday, and will be cheering him on.
I loved how the quiescently Australian rural community of Penguin Hill rallied behind Roy with good humour and genuine delight in his good fortune. Smith populates the town with charming characters from the sweetly earnest Cassie, and her father, Barry who tends the Penguin Hill cricket ground with devotion, to the flirty, brightly dressed Dolly, and Roy’s fellow team members, among them Chicken, Mighty and Skid.
Donna too is someone to champion. Forced to hide behind the dual identities of ‘Don Garrett’ and his assistant ‘Julie Barnes’ in order to pen her column, she loves the game, yet has had to make herself invisible to pander to the sexist attitudes of the time. Her visits to her father, to whom she reads her columns without revealing her necessary deception, are quite poignant, and the bond she forms with Cassie is touching.
Written with warmth and humour, Cooper Not Out is a wonderfully uplifting read, perfect for a summer’s afternoon.
Thank you Penguin for sending us a copy to read and review. Aussies love to bat for an underdog. Put a video tape in your VCR and hit rewind and you’ll wind back to 1984 with this Aussie feel good story. Summer and cricket go hand in hand whether you like it or not in this country and this story will appeal to both those who love it or can leave it. Overweight local cop, Roy has played cricket for his town for decades. Statistically his record is brilliant. When a young fan unearths how good he is it comes to the attention off a Melbourne sports writer. Donna loves the game and writes under a male name, whenever on the field she pretends to be the assistant. Will her passion and love of the sport derail the stereotype that only men can be experts on the game? Roy is called upon to play in a first class test match as the Aussies doing so badly had nothing to lose. All eyes were on the newest player and his whole town exploding with pride. I wasn’t sure if this would land for me as I’m not a cricket fan. But it did. Australian culture and vernacular, flashbacks to an iconic period and the reminder of how far we have come in number of ways. A yarn that bowled me over and one I totally enjoyed.
This warm bear-hug of a book had me grinning from the first page. I was swept up in the 80s nostalgia with nary a backwards glance and quickly found myself charmed by the small town of Penguin Hill and Sergeant Roy Cooper. While you don't have to be sports-minded to relate to the story, it felt very fitting to read this novel over a hot mid-January weekend, to the soundtrack of my son's cricket practice and Big Bash on TV.
Keen cricketers will love the famous cameos, journalists like myself will get a kick out of the newsroom banter and deadline dramas, and everyone will find themselves cheering for young Cassie Midwinter, empathising with big-hearted Baz and gunning for Donna Garrett as she follows the scoop of a lifetime. A real corker of a read, I reckon we could do with more Roy Coopers in the world! Thanks to Penguin Random House for an early copy of this novel.
How fortuitous to start my reading year with a 5-star read. A perfect example of right book at the right time and place.
I was in the mood for this cricket-themed book after the excitement of this year's Boxing Day Test. I was then pleasantly surprised that, not only was this story about cricket, but it was set in the summer of 84/85 and was filled with famous cricketers from my childhood, and it even culminated in the Boxing Day Test! It's the story of Roy Cooper, a middle-aged country cop who is a stalwart of his team, but hardly makes any runs, but neither has he ever having been given Out. Not in 30 seasons. This remarkable feat takes him from his little country town all the way to the hallowed turf of the MCG, in a bid to save the struggling Australian Test Team, demoralised by the in-form, unbeatable West Indian rivals. This quirky premise made for an upbeat, nostalgia-filled story perfect for lazy, hot Aussie summer days.
This story was beautifully constructed - with a big cast of vivid, complex characters; excellent pacing; and a good balance of humour and pathos. The author used his tropes well - they felt right, rather than cliched. He showed great affection for a simpler time, but was not blind to the darker side of that less enlightened era. Fact and fiction seemed well integrated - hopefully more knowledgeable cricket fans would also agree. The 84/85 setting was well chosen, as in hindsight, it was the nadir for Aussie cricket - the sacking of Kim Hughes and the subsequent captaincy by Allan Border ushered in a golden era where Aussies were particularly dominant in world cricket.
Cooper Not Out could do with a big screen adaptation by Working Dog Productions - it would make a worthy successor to The Castle and The Dish.
One of the best audio books I've ever listened to. Even if you don't usually follow cricket, the characters and plot are worth it. For me, it was especially meaningful as I remember the 1980s and the real people and events woven into the story. But it was the emotional plot that kept me up late listening to the end of a match and hoping Cooper would pull through...
This book was amazing. My only fault with it is I'm not sure everyone will love it as much as me. If you have any interest in cricket and the poetry of sport you will love this book!
I love cricket. The joy of flopping on my mother's leather couch just before lunch on a hot summer's day and turning on Wide World of Sports with Richie Benaud and the team to watch the Aussies in white and see the pitch analysis and the player interviews and the careful strategies build layer upon layer, ball upon ball was the summers of my childhood. For a while I lost that love, but this book has reminded me of everything that was great about cricket, cheating and drinking and betting and all that rubbish aside. Brilliant.
I’m calling it…this is THE book of #Summer….coming 18 Jan 2022! I got an early peek of the book when Justin was writing it and knew it was something special. Set in the Aussie Summer of 1984, cricket is a big player in the story but there’s so much more. Small-town police sergeant Roy Cooper is the hero I needed to read about right now. The story is uplifting, poignant and beautifully Aussie! Roy Cooper’s “been batting for his local cricket club for decades — where he’s a statistical miracle. He’s overweight, he makes very few runs, he’s not pretty to watch, but he’s never been dismissed…” And I loved the character Donna Garrett a tenacious sports reporter who has to write her nationally-read column under the pseudonym of “Don” because the mood of the era was that women sports writers wouldn’t be taken seriously. Donna knows her stuff and knows she’s onto a special story when she finds out about Roy. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 5-stars from me because it’s beautifully written and a feel-good story that’s going to appeal broadly. Sport is a gateway to so many feelings and experiences and Justin has told a story that made me feel so much while reading it. #bookstagram #summerreads #books #aussieauthors #feelgood #Australia #fiction
I loved this wonderfully joyous & distinctly Australian country book. A gloriously silly concept. It would be impossible to read without a smile, even if you know nothing about cricket. Not without its thoughtful side, with themes like the media's treatment of women & high level sports people, homosexuality, sports administration, country life, family. A happy fast paced book with a great (simple but evocative) writing style: "... she saw no obvious skills or talent. His stance was normal for a man of almost 50 who couldn't bend too far forward. His back lift was slight & every connection he made with the ball seemed more like a surprise than a planned stroke. And he had no footwork at all. He would start with his feet almost touching and they barely moved for the shot. It looked like his boots had been nailed into the popping crease and he'd just walked out in his socks & laced himself in to play." Brilliant
This is an utterly charming book - nostalgic but with an edge that makes it perfect for a contemporary audience. It's like a zhooshed up roast dinner - something about it is so familiar but the glasses aren't completely rose coloured here. Smith has some important and interesting things to say about sexism and homophobia of the 1980s, but does it in a way that illuminates rather than lectures. I'm a cricket fan, but it's not a requirement for this book because it's a story of humanity, over and above the red ball game.
Loved this. The characters were 'characters' and the fictional side farcicle but I loved the mix of small town antics with the background of the 1984 Australian (and West Indies) test teams. This was my first summer of cricket in Australia and all the names came back from my learning curve that year - Alan Border, first stint as captain, Craig McDermott making a debut, Courtney Walsh, Joel Garner, Kepler Wessels, Richie Benaud... A really good romp - hats off to the writer for his research and his weaving of fact and fiction.
This is a cracker of a book. Warm, engaging, funny and poignant. The story of a country cricketer who by happenstance finds himself opening the batting for Australia. Full of great characters and situations, it's up there with my best books of 2022. I listened to the audio book, which was exquisitely narrated by a well known Australian actor Matt Day. I think his professional delivery added to how much I enjoyed the story.
I really enjoyed this! It’s a bit fanciful, and a real tear-jerker, but the characters live and the issues canvassed are relevant. I particularly liked the way the author told his story with reference to real life cricketers - idols of my youth. My one quibble is the reference to Cooper ‘not going out.’ Surely he was simply ‘not out?’
I wanted to be Donna Garrett. A chick who writes about cricket. Test cricket? Best cricket.
Absolutely loved this. It is funny, warm-hearted, cringey, nostalgic, inspiring and uplifting. Penguin Hill is the place to be with its quirky characters. Didn't want it to end.
Simply written and heartwarming; a terrific summer holiday book even for those with only the slightest understanding of cricket. You can tell the author is a journalist through their imagery - I could visualise every scene so clearly and colourfully, and think it would make a great TV movie. Maybe William McInnes as Sgt Roy Cooper?
Just bloody brilliant. A quintessential Aussie story wrapped in Aussie humour and filled to the brim with memorable Aussie characters. Can you hear the trumpets of the Wide World of Sports or the crack of a kookaburra on willow? That’s the soundtrack of an Aussie summer and most definitely the soundtrack of this book. Do you need to like cricket to enjoy the story? I don’t think so. There are lots of loveable characters, a number of side stories to keep the cricket loathers entertained, and it has an ending that will bring a smile to your face. The audio version even has a narrator with a decent Richie Benaud impression. This will no doubt be in my top 5 reads for 2022.
Finished reading Cooper Not Out and what a beautiful story, rich characters with a depth captured so vividly. I have never laughed out loud reading a book before but this had me in stitches a couple of times. One of my favourite reads ever which I didn't want to end. The added bonus is that I now have a better appreciation of cricket, especially the country cricket I grew up with. As we country folk might say, 'what a ripper'.
I needed an easy read for a long day of train travel and this was perfect. A fast paced cracking story set in country Victoria, great for cricket lovers, and full of delightful characters you come through know and love. Loved the digs at the "establishment" it wasn't overwrought but quite factual about the white male bullshit that went on in the 1980's in Australia (& let's face it unfortunately still does today although there are now the Cassie characters in this world which is lessening that generation by generation). So for a quick holiday read with a real Aussie flavour you can't go wrong.
My new favourite book of all time. Like a big warm hug. The nostalgia was so incredibly strong - I was 7 in 1984, and I connected so much with Cassie (I could imagine her being one of the grade sixxers), I knew all but one of the cricket greats names and faces, and I was completed transported to another time and place. I cried big time at Graces quiet acceptance and was so pleased when the baths resumed. What a tale.
A fiction book about cricket. I think I only liked it because it was about cricket. There were too many box ticking storylines that actually mattered fuck little and then didn’t get resolved. His gay lover. The anonymity of Donna. The annoying little girl.
The best bit of writing was about the tea lady’s tits.
It was a good read though. I like Australia and I like cricket and I like books.
Heartwarming. 40 odd year old village cricketer who is shit but never gets out gets called up to play for Australia against a prime West Indies.
If this book was the same story but with baseball instead of cricket or some shit I would give it zero stars. But I liked it.
Bless up the floating libraries of Tasmania. Borrowed in Launceston returned in Hobart. Goat
There is a delicate kindness and depth to this beautifully crafted book. Justin Smith delivers warmth and humour in a way I find quite charming and although I love test cricket I don't think you'd be disadvantaged approaching it if you don't care about it at all. It was the hug after a flat day that I needed at the time.
A great, entertaining read. I'm not a fan of cricket, but this book has stirred my curiousity enough to make me want to watch a match. It also made me laugh out loud. Great evocation of country life, and sport in the "good old days" before money was King.
3 ½ ⭐️ Heart warming and lots of fun. Aaron and I listened to this one together over a few car trips. Loved revisiting 80’s Australian cricket history with the lovable ‘Sarge’, Roy Cooper, and many other great Aussie characters added to the mix.
What a fun book, with a twist or two along the way. The characters are interesting and you sometimes get to know too much about them ... and they all have secrets. This book is also a love affair with cricket ... the passion for the game in the book is contagious.
Great story and characters. Couldn’t put it down and read it in one sitting! A little teary eyed at the end. A really beautiful story that I think we all need right now in 2022! Anyway, I’m now off to go find me a country cricket match to watch with a cup of tea and scones!
Loved this book, made even more special by the cricket names that I know from my younger years. It is a story that will have you laughing, have you in tears about an unassuming country cop who, it is discovered, has Never gone out in all his cricketing career.