Cricket Biography

Glenn McGrath is an Australian cricket great - a fast bowler both feared and admired by top-level cricketers around the world. Off the field, his life was touched by tragedy with the death of his first wife, Jane, from breast cancer yet also marked by a determination to celebrate her life and make sure her legacy helps thousands of others through the Jane McGrath Foundation - now one of Australia's biggest and most effective breast cancer charities

Fanatical about cricket since he was a boy, Miles Jupp would do anything to see his heroes play. But perhaps deciding to bluff his way into the press corps during England's Test series in India wasn't his best idea. By claiming to be the cricket correspondent for BBC Scotland and getting a job with the (Welsh) Western Mail, Miles lands the press pass that will surely be the ticket to his dreams. Soon, he finds himself in cricket heaven - drinking with David Gower and Beefy, and sharing bar room banter with Nasser Hussain.

This is the remarkable story of Rahul Dravid's extraordinary cricketing career that commenced in 1996. The book highlights the physical, mental and, of course, technical attributes that have elevated Rahul to legendary status. In this honest endeavour to recount the story of Rahul Dravid, the author is assisted by reminiscences from his mentors, seniors, teammates and even opponents, all of whom witnessed the making of a cricketing legend from close quarters.

It is not often that an author and his editor strike up a relationship which survives forty years of epistolary exchanges and intellectual sparring. The strangely enduring and occasionally fractious friendship which developed between the famously outspoken historian Ramachandra Guha and his reticent editor Rukun Advani is the subject of this quite eccentric and thoroughly compelling literary memoir.

Michael Parkinson's relationship with his late father, John William, was, and remains, a family love story overflowing with tenderness and tall tales of sporting valour, usually involving Yorkshire cricket or Barnsley FC. However, it was the overwhelming grief which poured out of Michael when Piers Morgan pressed him about John William in a television interview that convinced one of the outstanding broadcasters and journalists of our time to delve deeper into the dynamics of their lives together.

Here, for the first time, the world of a pro cricketer is revealed, and the man pulling back the dressing room curtains is one of England's greatest ever cricketers: James 'Jimmy' Anderson. 565 Test Wickets and counting. Written with Felix White - musician, cricket enthusiast and Anderson's co-host on BBC Five Live's phenomenally popular podcast Tailenders - Jimmy invites us all into his world of cricket.

Fast bowler, six-hitter, popular hero, one of the lads, king of the jungle - Andrew Flintoff is all of those things. In Second Innings, his searingly honest yet uplifting autobiography, Flintoff reveals unseen, surprising sides to his career and personality. The restless need to push and challenge himself that led him to take up professional boxing. The complex and troubled relationship with discipline, alcohol and authority during his exhilarating cricket career.

Voted the greatest English cricketer of the 20th century by the fans, Sir Ian Botham is the English game’s one true living legend, and his story, both on and off the pitch, reads like a Boy’s Own rollercoaster ride. Born with a natural genius for the game, Botham began breaking records with bat and ball from a young age and soon became the man English cricket expected most from. After a troubled period as captain, Botham rose once again to become a national hero with his display in the Miracle Ashes of 1981.

Harold Larwood is an England cricketing legend. During the MCC’s notorious 1932–3 Ashes tour of Australia, his ‘Bodyline’ bowling left Australia’s batsmen bruised and battered, halved the batting average of the great Don Bradman – and gave England a 4–1 series victory. But the diplomatic row that followed brought Anglo-Australian relations to the brink of collapse. Larwood was used as a scapegoat by the MCC, which demanded he apologise for bowling Bodyline.

Perfect for cricket fans everywhere, Thanks, Johnners is a rich blend of biography and anecdote, of antics and dramas on and off the pitch, in and out of the commentary box, filled with stories about the great names of cricket, including Fred Trueman, Geoffrey Boycott, Vivian Richards, Michael Holding, and Ian Botham.

From being Champion of Champions to one of the world's top cricket commentators to Team India's head coach, Ravi Shastri has an incomparable perspective when it comes to the game of cricket. In Stargazing: The Players in My Life, the legendary all-rounder looks back at the extraordinary talent he has encountered over the years.

In this engaging, cradle-to-grave biography, award-winning author Todd James Pierce explores the life of Ward Kimball, a lead Disney animator who worked on characters such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Jiminy Cricket, and the Mad Hatter. Through unpublished excerpts from Kimball's personal writing, material from unpublished interviews, and new information based on interviews conducted by the author, Pierce defines the life of perhaps the most influential animator of the 20th century.

To understand England's greatest cricket player is to know what it takes to succeed. Alastair Cook is the greatest batsman to ever play for England, and as one of the most gifted players in the world, he knows that his triumphs are as important as the challenges and moments of resilience. Now, as he English cricket team reel from his dramatic retirement, Alastair tells his story: a close-up account of his last chapter, his 33rd and last Test hundred, an intimate tale of his life, his family, of the man he is today and the man he will be - after cricket.

An emotionally rich, moving and nuanced memoir from the Yorkshire and England wicketkeeper. As a young boy of eight, Jonny Bairstow was dealt a cruel blow. His father David 'Bluey' Bairstow, the combative and very popular wicketkeeper and captain of Yorkshire, took his own life at the age of 47. David left behind Jonny; Jonny's sister, Becky, and half brother, Andy; and his wife, Janet, who had recently been diagnosed with cancer at the time of his death.

Henry Blofeld's voice is the sound of the summer to thousands of cricket lovers all over the world, and this autobiographical audiobook is a celebration of his career commentating on the sport he loves. Henry has been a summariser on Test Match Special for over 40 years, and cricket fans all over the world adore him. In this book he relives his favourite moments in the sport and shares behind-the-scenes anecdotes and stories told in his unique style.

Scyld Berry attended his first Test match in a professional capacity in June 1973, as EW Swanton's 'amanuensis'. With his 501st Test now on the horizon – an achievement never reached by any other greats of the cricket-writing world – Berry has watched the sport evolve like no other. Test cricket is a steady stream: England have not had a winter off-season since 1972, some Test series almost overlap with the next, and players span eras.

In spring 2018, England cricket had a performance problem. The Test team hadn’t won a Test match overseas for nearly two years. Recently crushed in the Ashes, England teams were world ranked 5th, 4th and 2nd across the three formats. The England and Wales Cricket Board approached Ed Smith, asking him to bring in a whole new philosophy. Over the next three years, England’s teams won 7 out of 10 completed matches—better than England had ever performed in the board’s history. Making Decisions shares Ed’s approach to finding success.

Hawke first captained Yorkshire in the Championship in 1883. He was also the man who sacked Bobby Peel, the greatest left-arm bowler of his era, and infamously declaimed "Pray God, no professional shall ever captain England", sentiments that very nearly damned him forever. A man of contradictions, strong convictions, more often than not his own worst enemy, this cricketing biography goes behind the myth of the man looking to paint a picture of one of cricket’s great men.

Felix takes us through his life growing up in South West London and describes how his story is forever punctuated and given meaning by cricket. Through his own exploits as a slow left arm spinner of 'lovely loopy stuff', to the tragic illness of his mother, life with The Maccabees and his cricket redemption, Felix touches on both the comedic and the tragic in equal measure. Throughout, there's the ever-present roller coaster of following the England cricket team.

At the epicentre of England's historic triumph was Ben Stokes, the talismanic all-rounder with an insatiable appetite for The Big Occasion. He contributed an absolutely critical 84 runs off 98 balls when England batted, a seemingly nerveless innings of discipline and maturity. Thrillingly, it was enough to tie the scores at 241 runs each, so the match reverted to a Super Over - just six balls for each side to bat in the ultimate in sporting sudden death. Stokes and his batting partner, Jos Buttler, saw England to 15 runs off their over.