FROM THE MAG: We asked you for your all-time favourite cricket books and you responded in your droves. here we reveal your top five - and where to buy them.
This article originally featured in our June 2023 issue of The Cricketer magazine. To read the article in full - together with a list of other worthy contenders - and all the best cricket writing from the world's oldest cricket magazine click here to subscribe.
We had a heart-gladdeningly bumper response to our request for you to name your favourite cricket books.
Our appeal came alongside a tremendous article by Duncan Hamilton in the March issue, and he dominates the top five.
A staggering number of books received nominations, but now is the time to reveal your elite, in reverse order, with selected comments from admirers.
The response shows what an articulate and invested readership we are fortunate to have… thank you!
Please note that when you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission
David Popple – I found this fascinating, and a hint of what a fine cricket broadcaster he would become.
Michael Coffin – Unlike many autobiographies of the time, 2003, this was all his own work and it struck me how different it was in content, personal opinion on the world game and thoughtfulness compared with others.
David Rimmer – An honest account that proudly outlined his Lancashire cricket and education roots. He made no excuses for what happened while he was England captain or for a chronic back condition that limited him. On his 185 not out at Johannesburg in 1994/95, it was revealing, not least the mental processes of getting through session by session.
Click here to buy Opening Up from Amazon
Click here to buy Opening Up from Waterstones
Julian Meredydd – He is a man who loved cricket and in particular the cricket of the West Indies… the book has art, narrative skill and human empathy.
Robby Wilton – A remarkable book. Beautifully written, it seeks to bring together the writer's Marxist ideology with his views on those parts of British culture which may have improved society. Remember this is the activist who campaigned so vigorously and passionately for a black man to captain West Indies and there are still many of us alive who recall the joy and genius of Frank Worrell's captaincy. The chapter on Wilton St Hill is captivating, so descriptive I can see this lithe figure touch-flicking ball to boundary, whenever I read it.
Click here to buy Beyond a Boundary from Amazon
Click here to buy Beyond a Boundary from Waterstones
Rosie Howlett – One of the best cricket writers we have chronicling our heritage – beautiful indeed.
Paul Dyson – A nostalgic look back, via 18 'days at the cricket', on how it was, how it could be and how it also might have been. As ever with Hamilton, beautifully written and fully deserving of it being the William Hill Sports Book of the Year (2019).
Peter Brookes – It is perceptive, beautiful, and poignant about the dangers to first-class cricket, now called horribly, 'the red ball game'. Hamilton paints the picture of cricket as the supreme art form, and no one does this better. He writes whimsically of the past and uses his love and knowledge of the game to set out the disasters inherent in the promotion of The Hundred. Will anyone listen?
Click here to buy One Long and Beautiful Summer from Amazon
Click here to buy One Long and Beautiful Summer from Waterstones
Tom Maslona – Books that are classed as 'definitive' and that run to more than 450 pages can, in some quarters, be regarded as dull, yet Frith's account of the Bodyline series rattles along more quickly than a short-pitched delivery from Harold Larwood delivered from around the wicket. Tales of the pre-tour meeting at the Piccadilly Hotel in London where the bowling strategy was discussed and agreed upon are catnip to this cricket lover. Douglas Jardine emerges as a leader of courage and Larwood as a dutiful and loyal servant to his captain. Their treatment at the hands of the cricketing authorities following this tour struck me as disappointing and disturbing.
John Hamilton – Frith has written so many fine cricket books, but because of the importance and impact of this series I select this one.
Click here to buy Bodyline Autopsy from Amazon
Click here to buy Bodyline Autopsy from Waterstones
Richard Godfrey – The best cricket book I have ever read by one of sport's greatest writers. The only cricket book to make me cry at the treatment of Harold by the cricket establishment. A masterpiece.
Mick Pope – In my humble opinion the best cricket biography produced to date – a wkingclass hero and a quick bowler who carried out his captain's instructions with devasting eficiency and found redemption in the enemy's backyard – superb!
Click here to buy this book from Amazon
Click here to buy this books from Waterstones
To discover even more great reads, check out our list of 2023's best cricket books.
Inside our June 2023 issue of The Cricketer magazine, you'll also find:
- Paul Hayward can scarcely believe The Hundred has a free August run
- ECB chair Richard Thompson answers questions from our readers
- Mike Brearley thinks ahead to the forthcoming Ashes series
- Simon Wilde puts forward the case for an England Test museum
- Huw Turbervill gives his verdict on Manoj Badale’s Test window idea
- Mike Selvey says The Hundred is emptying the ECB exchequer
- Football legend Glenn Hoddle explains why he loves cricket
- Nasser Hussain is concerned about preserving Test cricket
- Nick Friend profiles Katherine Brunt-Sciver following her retirement
- And much, much more...
Subscribe to The Cricketer for exclusive content every day: The inside track on England's Test tour with George Dobell in Pakistan, award-winning analysis, breaking news and interviews and the only place for in-depth county coverage all year round. Plus: An ad-free app experience at your fingertips. Subscribe to thecricketer.com today for just £1.
Welcome to www.thecricketer.com - the online home of the world’s oldest cricket magazine. Breaking news, interviews, opinion and cricket goodness from every corner of our beautiful sport, from village green to national arena.