Product Description

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 Aurum: 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #382917 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-28
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
"* 'his day-to-day reporting, laced with historical allusions and comparisons, is a tour de force', Ian Wooldridge, Daily Mail * 'If Flintoff is the cricketer that England waited two decades for, Gideon Haigh may be the writer for a game that inspires literature' Observer"

About the Author
Gideon Haigh is also the author of The Big Ship and Bad Company. He lives in Melbourne, Australia.

Customer Reviews

Gideon Haigh - The Best Cricket Writer Around
I am a cricket lover. I don't love cricket to the exclusion of all else, and I don't read every cricket book that's publsihed. But I have read Cardus, Robertson Glasgow, Arlott, Fingleton and many more, and I am quite certain that Gideon Haigh is up there with the best of them. His sheer thirst for the knowledge, nuts and bolts and nuttiness of our mutually-adored summer game produces articles or essays on subjects as wide-ranging as 'Protection Racket' - about the box! - to 'The Yellow Press', about the origins of Wisden. Though the slant is predominantly Australian, Haigh does not let this blind his opinions - far from it - and his writing style is fluent and eminently readable. It is entirely appropriate that in an era when the Baggy Green has carried all before it, Australia also takes the top literary prize.