The Daily Telegraph book of cricket - Nick Hoult

The Telegraph is a newspaper committed to serious, beautifully-written sports coverage. Cricket editor Nick Hoult has collected some of the paper’s finest cricket writing in a treasure trove of archive material.

Hoult’s selection covers many eras and styles of writing: the earliest coverage from a century ago consists of evocative reportage, ranging from the deaths of W.G. Grace and Victor Trumper, the exploits of C.B. Fry, through to E. W. “Jim” Swanton’s magisterial distillations of Don Bradman’s Ashes performances.

The book clearly exposes the trajectory of cricket writing –an evolution that, by the ‘70s, had segued into features, profiles and analysis. The Telegraph hosted the superb writing of Tony Lewis on, for example, Clive Lloyd’s all-conquering West Indians and the first World Cup. Then, into the ‘90s a more whimsical and personal cricket writing emerged from the likes of Martin Johnson, Mark Nicholas and Simon Hughes - covering both keenly fought Tests and the most bucolic of county matches at Maidstone.

This book is a high quality anthology that will satisfy both fans of the modern game and those who are interested in its history.