Books

Worrell/Simon Lister

This biography serves as an illuminating follow up to Who Only Cricket Knows. Frank Worrell was the first black cricketer to captain the West Indies for a full series. A member of the three Ws triumvirate Caribbean; Clyde Walcott, who like Worrell went to Combermere school, and Everton Weekes [...]

August 10, 2024 // 0 Comments

Who Only Cricket Knows/David Woodhouse

This is a book prize-winning account of the 1953-1954 tour to the Caribbean led by Len Hutton and managed by Charles Palmer. The title is an adaptation from Rudyard Kipling by the Marxist writer C.R James which reflected one of the tensions of the tour – nascent Caribbean nationalism – [...]

July 31, 2024 // 0 Comments

Yellowface/Rebecca Kuang

This is an impressive novel recommended by Harriet Gilbert on A Good Read and presently Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime. The story is of an unsuccessful writer Juniper Hayward who is friendly at Yale with a far more successful one – Athena Liu. She meets up with her buddy in Washington DC who, [...]

July 19, 2024 // 0 Comments

Adult Book/Malcolm Knox

If i were to describe this novel in one word it would be scabrous. Malcolm Knox is a Sydney journalist and the novel is set in its North Shore. It features the Brand family. John is a doctor who died age 62 after becoming a porn addict. He has 3 sons by his ambitious wife Margaret: Davis, also [...]

July 17, 2024 // 0 Comments

Richie Benaud’s Blue Suede Shoes/David Kynaston and Harry Ricketts

This is the story of a classic Ashes series in 1961 in the context of two very different captains Peter May and Richie Benaud. Peter May (Charterhouse and Cambridge) was more patrician, a classical batsman but cold and distant from his men. Richie Benaud was an adventurous captain but also a [...]

July 8, 2024 // 0 Comments

All That Glitters/Orlando Whitfield

This is an account of the friendship between two art dealers – Orlando Whitfield and Inigo Philbrook – who met at Goldsmiths College. After an internship at the White Cube Gallery of mega-successful art dealer Jay Jopling, Inigo Philbrook made a fortune as a dealer in the secondary [...]

June 23, 2024 // 0 Comments

Beryl Cook

Many years ago I was at the National Theatre for a play I have long forgot. In the interval I went to their bookshop and came across THE WORKS by Beryl Cook. The cover alone reduced my theatre-going companion and myself to uncontrollable hysterics. Beryl Cook occupies a unique spot on art as she is [...]

May 15, 2024 // 0 Comments

Titanic lives/Richard Davenport-Hines

The Titanic sank 112 years and 1 month ago but it’s still an iconic event and I have often wondered why. It must be the sheer tragedy of the greatest liner of its age sinking on its maiden voyage and/or the film which launched the career of Kate Winslet and/or the horror of rich and poor [...]

May 11, 2024 // 0 Comments

Earth/John Boyne

This is not your normal football novel as the subject – Evan Keogh- is gay and does not like football but instead wants to become a painter. The story is that his teammate Robbie Wolverton is accused of raping a girl which Evan filmed. Much of the 168 pages of this novella is taken up with [...]

May 8, 2024 // 0 Comments

State of Emergency/Dominic Sandbrook

This is an account of the years of Edward Heath as Prime Minister (1970-74). It was a tawdry time of rock bottom industrial relations, high inflation, the ill-advised Barber “boom”, soccer hooliganism and extreme violence within the Province (“The Troubles”) and IRA outrages on the [...]

April 30, 2024 // 0 Comments

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ITV COVERAGE OF CHELTENHAM

March 14, 2026 // 0 Comments

I am in the camp of watching on tv rather than attending for the 3 Cs: cost , convenience and comfort. With the cost of travelling and attending Cheltenham and last [...]
Max Schmelling/ The Good German

March 4, 2026 // 0 Comments

In the unlikely event that I would be asked to nominate a Great Life on Matthew Parris ‘ show my choice would be the Black Uhlan Max Schmelling. In the 1930s thee [...]
The Tanner Report : Fulham 2 spurs 1

March 3, 2026 // 0 Comments

Prior to Fulham ‘s comfortable win over Spurs (2-1) I watched the big match Revisited featuring Chelsea 1 Arsenal 2 i guess in the early 70s It would be foolish to [...]
The Six Nations

February 24, 2026 // 0 Comments

The Six Nations continues to throw up surprises. England could not bounce back against Ireland , a resurgent Wales gave Scotland à close game with the Millennium Stadium [...]
Brentford 0 Brighton 2

February 23, 2026 // 0 Comments

The heat is off Fabian Hürzeler with Brighton ‘s 1st win in 13 games. Club owner Tony Bloom was not at the G Tech stadium due to a long planned family engagement but had [...]