An Abounding Joy: Essays on Sport

by Ian McDonald, Clem Seecharan (Editor)

Ian McDonald (1933-), the eminent poet, thinker and public intellectual, has written more than 1,500 articles over the last four decades. Shortly after the founding of Stabroek News in Guyana, by his friend David de Caires in 1986, he commenced (and still does) a weekly column covering literature, politics, history, economics, philosophy and sport. Enriched by the astounding range of his reading spanning seven decades, McDonald's elegant writing is permeated by the pursuit of beauty, a poetic sensibility, intellectual rigour and a hunger to comprehend and inform. His has been a life of the mind, sustained by the sanctity of learning, and the imperative to inculcate the habit of reading in order to foster critical thinking. One of the best tennis players in the region in the 1950s-60s, McDonald captained Cambridge, as he did Guyana and the West Indies, in the Davis Cup. He also played at Wimbledon in 1952, 1953, 1954 and 1959. This book comprises 100 of his essays on sport, compiled, edited and vividly annotated by Clem Seecharan, the distinguished Guyanese historian. They cover tennis, squash, and boxing, but it is McDonald's revered sport, cricket, that predominates in this collection. The latter encompasses the history of the game, including its place in the soul of the West Indian people, in addition to its contemporary problems and challenges. There are also beautifully crafted pieces on his 'Uncle Bertie' Harragin (who played against WG Grace in 1906), WG himself, Frank Worrell, Joe Solomon, Clive Lloyd, Viv Richards, Brian Lara, Shiv Chanderpaul and, his greatest hero of them all, the superb Guyana and West Indies batsman, Rohan Kanhai. The Guyana Olympic Association has honoured McDonald for his contribution to art and sport. These essays sparkle with the erudition and lyrical energy of Ian McDonald, but they also endeavour to provoke - challenging readers to rethink. Easily accessible, they could be read randomly because they are self-contained. This is one of the most refined collections of writing on sport published on the Caribbean and beyond. It will be intoxicating to sport fans. It will give abounding joy to anyone who reads it.

574 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 18, 2019

About the author

Ian Neil McDonald was born in 1960 in Manchester, England, to an Irish mother and a Scottish father. He moved with his family to Northern Ireland in 1965. He used to live in a house built in the back garden of C. S. Lewis's childhood home but has since moved to central Belfast, where he now lives, exploring interests like cats, contemplative religion, bonsai, bicycles, and comic-book collecting. He debuted in 1982 with the short story "The Island of the Dead" in the short-lived British magazine Extro. His first novel, Desolation Road, was published in 1988. Other works include King of Morning, Queen of Day (winner of the Philip K. Dick Award), River of Gods, The Dervish House (both of which won British Science Fiction Association Awards), the graphic novel Kling Klang Klatch, and many more. His most recent publications are Planesrunner and Be My Enemy, books one and two of the Everness series for younger readers (though older readers will find them a ball of fun, as well). Ian worked in television development for sixteen years, but is glad to be back to writing full-time.