Not since the 1890s

There are a few things that the late Victorian period bring to mind. Joseph Conrad hammering out works of Genius; I think of the builders who would have laid the bricks of my Mansion Block Flat; and thanks to Mike Selvey’s article yesterday in The Guardian I was awoken to the fact that with the exciting departure of our Ashes Team to Australia, for the first time since the 1890s, our touring Cricket team is in with a shout of winning four back to back Ashes series.

Yes it is very exciting.

 

A few books read this year

Two good things about each of these books :

Cricket’s Strangest Matches : The Bramble Bank game played on the Solent before the incoming tide is one of Britain’s quirkiest traditions; the picture of Wesley Hall bouncing Aussie Norman O’Neill illustrates in no uncertain terms why every schoolboy wants to be a fast bowler.

Wodehouse at the Wicket : Dulwich College’s greatest Old Boy played at Lords amongst the Authors v. Publishers in 1922. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Hugh de Selincourt present, the scorecard is at the back; the poems.

Thanks, Johnners : The photo of Johnners in his Boundary Road study is a cricket fan’s delight; the passages retold of Aggers bounding around the family farm as a teenager listening to TMS are great.

WG’s Birthday Party : The old photo of WG leading the team out into the middle; the fact that Beldam’s black and white adorns the front cover.

Company through the Winter

Company through the Winter