Overview

How to be a Cricket Fan: A Life in Fifty Artefacts from WG to Wisden is a unique, nostalgic take on supporting the greatest sport, pre-internet. This relatable, universal story records how one cricketing obsessive encounters players from WG Grace to Ben Stokes, plus plenty of characters you're unlikely to have come across. With running themes of Wisden, sportsman's dinners and otterhounds, the book's hero meets Ian Botham and Linda Lusardi on the A6, drinks red wine while showing Fred Trueman his priceless collection and drives his family mad by taking them on summer holidays to buy John Arlott's old books. The colourful images on cigarette cards and the yellow linen cover of Wisden succoured a wartime evacuee who spent a lifetime trying to bring back those memories. After facing ruin, his passion culminated in him finding happiness in a dream career. This is the story of an English eccentric's journey from cricketing backwaters to entertaining the stars and becoming a leading authority on the game.

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9781801504225

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A warm, kaleidoscopic biography of Matthew's father Edgar Lawson Appleby and a life of cricketing passion, told through 50 resonant artefacts... it's a rich trail of sporting memory. In many ways the book reveals the personal and social importance of trivia, how we accumulate it and, as Matthew says, there's always more trivia to find . * Cumbria Life *

Author Information

Matthew Appleby has written for Cricinfo, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, Sky, NZPA and many newspapers and magazines. He is the author of six books including New Zealand Test Cricket Captains and Durham Cricket: 100 Greats.

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