Felix has a remarkable way with words that you get a sense of on Tailenders when he's left to talk cricket, but it really comes into its own here. Felix takes us through his life growing up in South West London and describes how his story is forever punctuated and given meaning by cricket. As a fully fledged part of the Tailenders community, I should probably preface this review with the acknowledgment that I went into reading the book inclined to like it, however the extent to which I did is a credit to White and his writing.

From school-day horrors and mud flinging fun to nights at Liverpool’s punk club, Eric’s, Sergeant was fuelled by and thrived on music. A very unusual rock star, as he mentions in the book, it’s the first I’ve read that focuses on nearly everything else in life and puts priority on that over being in a band. Kathy Collier, who worked with Dunn in a Battersea sweet factory, talks about what it takes to ‘get out’ of a life that isn’t fulfilling.His passion for the game is at the fore on the BBC ‘s number one cricket podcast and 5Live show, Tailenders, which he co-presents with Greg James and Jimmy Anderson. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. This had a very similar literary style to the Broken Greek by Pete Paphides although it is none the worse for that. And, through the prism of her extraordinary experiences, she offers vital insights into the nature of race, class, feminism, sexuality and ageing in modern Britain. Really enjoyed this and in many ways I could relate to the duality… in the sense that this book was about cricket and about coping with the premature death of one’s mother.

I admit to having to stop reading a couple of times towards the end as I didn’t want to cry on the train I was on! If you're aiming for an in-depth analysis of the inner workings of the higher echelons of English cricket, this might not be for you.

To sum it up, this is a life story, told through cricket with little bits of family and maccabees interspersed.

A deeply moving book on both the large and the small of life, and how each is used to help survive the other. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Felix White's beautifully, elegantly and passionately written book reminds me why I love cricket so much.With unprecedented access to the artist’s entire archive, The Quentin Blake Book reveals the stories behind some of Blake’s most famous creations, while also providing readers with an intimate insight into the unceasing creativity of this remarkable artist. Felix meets them at each signposted moment to find out what was really behind those moments that gave cricket fans everywhere sporting memories that would last forever, sending the book into an exploration of grief, transgenerational displacement and how the people we’ve known and things we’ve loved culminate and take expression in our lives.

Felix White charts his life through a litany of cricket matches, characters and afternoons spent in sparsely populated Oval stands watching Surrey. The Maccabees, the band for whom he is renowned, released four studio albums and split at their commercial peak after 14 years together, off the back of a UK number one album and major festival headline shows. A fully illustrated overview of the life and work of the universally loved Quentin Blake, released ahead of the artist’s 90th birthday in December 2022. In 2019, Bernardine Evaristo became the first black woman to win the Booker Prize since its inception fifty years earlier – a revolutionary landmark for Britain. And if you are a cricket fan (especially an England cricket fan) you will be able to relate to so much of what is said - the lows and, indeed, the highs.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. It’s insightful, and beautifully written, and that well-quoted line from Wandavision really came to mind when reading it. His description of his rise to fame with The Maccabees, his absorption with cricket and lack of connection in relationships was both uplifting and tear jerking.