Customer Reviews
Not quite as good as expected - By: J. Hadaway, 20 Jul 2008 
The quality of the research & the insight & love of cricket are evident, you can almost hear for better or worse John speaking when reading it. I did enjoy the book but feel some sections were a bit of a slog. This is mainly due to the organisation & editing. The book is not a chronological history but instead discrete chapters e.g The Missionry.., Round Arm rebellion. I was struggling after to reconstructin my mind when all events took place across the book. It also can lead to some jumping around. One paragrpah 1870 the next 1900 with no date reference. It just makes the big picture harder to picture & it can also seem like repetition.
Surprisingly good - By: G. L. Haggett, 26 May 2008 Anyone who read John Major's autobiography & found parts of it a little stodgy & hard going will be pleasantly surprised at the light touch he shows here.
He traces the early history of cricket, concentrating on the personalities, but also placing them into the wider context to show how social changein the country (and world) at large was reflectedin cricket.
There are times when he seems to have half an eye on the assiduously pedantic cricket statistician & goes to great lengths to "show his workings"in order to back up what he is saying, but the book is shot through with a great sense of the author's enthusiasm.
And not a jelly bean in sight...... - By: Caterkiller, 16 May 2008 
The point of this book is that no-one is really sure where cricket began. It is largely accepted to have startedin a recognisable formin the early eighteenth century & from then it has been constantly metamorphisizing into the game we know & love. Before I read this I had never heard of "single wicket" cricket, played until the mid-19th Century but it would be intriguing to see such a match today between, say Andrew Flintoff & Andrew Symonds. Some of the facets of the game taken for granted today took years of controversey to develop: overarm bowling, leg pads (allowed only after one player suffered horrendous leg injuries) & three-stump wickets. Some of the characters are given, sometimes lengthy, pen-portraits: WG Grace, Fry, Trumper obviously, but also some the early pioneers, Mynn, Felix, Beldham & "Lumpy" Stevens. The early administrators of the game probably wouldn't look out of placein the MCC today, Lords Harris & Hawke being both paternalistic & dictatorial at the same time. This really is a page tuner for anyone interestedin the game & an absolute must for anyone disenchanted with the current fashion for cheerleaders, rock music & sledging which has destroyed so much of the game's appeal.
Enjoyable - By: Jamie Buckingham-Jackson, 24 Dec 2007 Very Enjoyable purchase! I enjoyed reading this, even if the plot's somewhat rushed. Although there's a feeling that the text is there simply to fill up the spaces between the illustrations, there are enough laugh out loud moments & classic Pratchett twists to make it work.
Affectionate, but rambling - By: F Tolley, 28 Nov 2007 
I picked this book off the shelf more out of curiosity about the author (of whom I am an admirer) than for any special love or knowledge of cricket - & then found myself immersedin the history of the game. The book is full of amusing anecdotes & interesting insights, & I felt I got right inside Sir John Major's mind. But the book could have done with a firmer hand on the editing,in my opinion. It is rather rambling & self indulgentin places, & there were definitely places where some trimming would have been beneficial.
