England Versus Australia

"My last book is an indulgence: England Versus Australia. Nobody else would have picked it, but I was given it when I was eight years old. England played Australia in the centenary test match in 1977, and to commemorate this a man called David Frith, who wrote an excellent book about Bodyline that I didn’t choose, compiled a book which is a pictorial history of every single test match that had ever taken place between England and Australia. He subsequently updated it, so it now goes up to 2007 – it doesn’t have the 2009 series but he’ll update it again. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter As an eight-year-old I’d open this hardbacked book and it would have every test match. In 1877 they’d have artists impressions of the game and photographs of the occasional player, like A C Bannerman, who was the first man ever to score a century. And with the pictures a little potted description, no more than 250 words, of the match. I read it from cover to cover repeatedly for about five years and just absorbed the look and feel of the people, the rickety wooden pads, extraordinary moustaches and incredible beards. You see the crowds with their hats and umbrellas, the way people used to stand, what cricket grounds used to look like, faces, actions, everything is glorious and mesmerising, the whole evolution of the game. It’s the most beautiful thing I think I’ve ever seen in my life."