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Laddar... That Will Be England Gone: The Last Summer of Cricket (utgåvan 2020)av Michael Henderson (Författare)
VerksinformationThat Will Be England Gone av Michael Henderson
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Gå med i LibraryThing för att få reda på om du skulle tycka om den här boken. Det finns inga diskussioner på LibraryThing om den här boken. The previous owner had the irritating habit of turning page corners over. He or she did this on pages 29, 89,105 and 137 and then either gave up or read right through to the end on page 296. This bad habit summarises the book for me. It is a curate's egg. Cricket is at risk of tumbling into mediocrity and the race to the bottom. The author gets this message across loud and clear and looks ahead to the soulless, meaningless, money orientated 'The Hundred Competition' with utter dread. Coronavirus has of course delayed it. Mixing cricket with music, classical and pop, literature and theatre, he seems to be doing something a la Cardus. He takes us through some lovely grounds and reminiscences and explains just why cricket gets into the heart and soul of those who love the spirit of the game. I liked the chapter on the festivals: Scarborough, Chesterfield and Cheltenham and on his views of Scarborough the town today, so far removed from the values of the real game of cricket. Back to Coronavirus, the joy of these festivals is so well captured, it just brings sadness that not rain but a great pandemic has eliminated these treats for us this year. What I did not like was the name dropping. You can enjoy cricket without being a buddy of Harold Pinter, 'without talking once to Stephen Sondheim,' without 'sitting with actor friends in front of the old Tavern...a few rows away' from Peter O'Toole and without having been to Repton or having a chip on one's shoulder about all of the above. I read it to the end in the sunshine and enjoyed most of it. inga recensioner | lägg till en recension
'For those who fear the worst for the sport they love, this is like cool, clear water for a man dying of thirst. It's barnstorming, coruscating stuff, and as fine a book about the game as you'll read for years' Mail on Sunday 'Charming . . . a threnody for a vanished and possibly mythical England' Sebastian Faulks, Sunday Times 'Lyrical . . . [Henderson's] pen is filled with the romantic spirit of the great Neville Cardus . . . This book is an extended love letter, a beautifully written one, to a world that he is desperate to keep alive for others to discover and share. Not just his love of cricket, either, but of poetry and classical music and fine cinema' The Times 'To those who love both cricket and the context in which it is played, the book is rather wonderful, and moving' Daily Telegraph 'Philip Larkin's line 'that will be England gone' is the premise of this fascinating book which is about music, literature, poetry and architecture as well as cricket. Henderson is that rare bird, a reporter with a fine grasp of time and place, but also a stylist of enviable quality and perception' Michael Parkinson Neville Cardus once said there could be no summer in England without cricket. The 2019 season was supposed to be the greatest summer of cricket ever seen in England. There was a World Cup, followed by five Test matches against Australia in the latest engagement of sport's oldest rivalry. It was also the last season of county cricket before the introduction in 2020 of a new tournament, The Hundred, designed to attract an audience of younger people who have no interest in the summer game. In That Will Be England Gone, Michael Henderson revisits much-loved places to see how the game he grew up with has changed since the day in 1965 that he saw the great fast bowler Fred Trueman in his pomp. He watches schoolboys at Repton, club cricketers at Ramsbottom, and professionals on the festival grounds of Chesterfield, Cheltenham and Scarborough. The rolling English road takes him to Leicester for T20, to Lord's for the most ceremonial Test match, and to Taunton to watch an old cricketer leave the crease for the last time. He is enchanted at Trent Bridge, surprised at the Oval, and troubled at Old Trafford. 'Cricket,' Henderson says, 'has always been part of my other life.' There are memories of friendships with Ken Dodd, Harold Pinter and Simon Rattle, and the book is coloured throughout by a love of landscape, poetry, paintings and music. As well as reflections on his childhood hero, Farokh Engineer, and other great players, there are digressions on subjects as various as Lancashire comedians, Viennese melancholy and the films of Michael Powell. Lyrical and elegiac, That Will Be England Gone is a deeply personal tribute to cricket, summer and England. Inga biblioteksbeskrivningar kunde hittas. |
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In this marvellous book, Michael Henderson, known primarily for his years as cricket correspondent writing in most of the leading newspapers at one time or another, displays his own extensive hinterland. In addition to a cornucopia of glorious cricketing memories, he takes the reader along with him in tangential forays into opera, literature, art and history.
In his regular articles on cricket, Henderson was seldom reluctant to express an opinion, caring little for established conventions if he felt they needed to be challenged. Yet even when I found myself disagreeing with him (which, I now realise, happened far less frequently than I might have expected), I was always impressed with what Sir Humphrey might have termed his ‘refreshing directness’. I could always follow his reasoning, too.
In this book, any residual reluctance to express his views has evaporated entirely, and he bemoans the impact of the relentless search for popularism on the noble game of cricket. It is easy to dismiss naysayers to new forms of cricket simply as knee-jerk reactionaries, opposed to change as a matter of principle. More than most sorts, cricket has a bedrock of Adullamites, constantly looking to a Corinthian past largely of their own imagining, and impervious to any hint of change. I don’t think that Henderson’s dismay falls into that category. He certainly makes no secret of his dislike, even scorn, at the recent trends in cricket, such as the predomination of the T20 format, which has almost driven out the long-established first class county game in England, or, even worse, the hullaballoo surrounding the imminent introduction of ‘The Hundred’ (still some way off in the future at the time Henderson was writing, but now launched). He does, however, offer soundly constructed arguments as to why he believes that these are dangerous developments.
Although a lifelong lover of the game, I am not sufficiently qualified to offer a worthwhile opinion as to whether he is right (although I strongly suspect he is). I can, however, expand on the joy of reading this book. I bought it for his insights and memories about cricket, but cherished it for far more. In between his reminiscences prompted by his last tour of the country as a working cricket correspondent, he weaves rich tapestries about a wealth of other subjects. And what a diverse selection!
In different chapters we are given a whistle-stop tour of the multifarious glories of Vienna; a potted biography of Robert Peel, who as Home Secretary founded the police force, before going on to form the modern Conservative Party; marvellous depictions of most of the great cricket grounds around the country, and a wonderful homage to Nobel laureate and famed cricket lover, Harold Pinter.
As a professional journalist of long standing, Henderson conveys all this was a wonderful economy of prose, with not a word wasted or without impact. I bought this as a cricket lover, but it is really a paean to British and European culture. ( )