One Long and Beautiful Summer: A Short Elegy For Red-Ball Cricket
£9.60£10.40 (-8%)
*A MULTIPLE AWARD-WINNING SPORTS WRITER*
‘Hamilton’s book is a marvel . . . I’m not sure he could write a dull sentence if he tried’ Spectator
One of Duncan Hamilton’s favourite writers on cricket, Edmund Blunden, wrote how he felt going to watch a game: ‘You arrive early, earlier even than you meant . . . and you feel a little guilty at the thought of the day you propose to give up to sheer luxury’.
Following Neville Cardus’s assertion that ‘there can be no summer in this land without cricket’, Hamilton plotted the games he would see in 2019 and write down reflectively on some of the cricket that blessed his own sight. It would be captured in the context of the coming season in case subsequent summers and the imminent arrival of The Hundred made that impossible. He would write in the belief that after this season the game might never be quite the same again.
He visits Welbeck Colliery Cricket Club to see Nottinghamshire play Hampshire at the tiny ground of Sookholme, gifted to the club by a local philanthropist who takes money on the gate; his village team at Menston in Yorkshire; the county ground at Hove; watches Ben Stokes’s heroics at Headingley, marvels at Jofra Archer’s gift of speed in a Second XI fixture for Sussex against Gloucestershire in front of 74 people and three well-behaved dogs; and realises when he reaches the last afternoon of the final county match of the season at Taunton, ‘How blessed I am to have been born here. How I never want to live anywhere else. How much I love cricket.’
One Long and Beautiful Summer forms a companion volume to Hamilton’s 2009 classic, A Last English Summer. It is sports writing at its most accomplished and evocative, confirming his reputation as the finest contemporary chronicler of the game.
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Additional information
| Publisher | riverrun (1 April 2021) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 272 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1529408393 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1529408393 |
| Dimensions | 12.7 x 2.03 x 19.69 cm |
by TJ
This is the best book on cricket I have read for a long time. And I read quite a few. I guess it helps to be of a certain age but Duncan Hamilton makes you feel you are at the match and his comments are perspicacious. It took me back to watching Kent in their pomp and being unable to move in case you precipitated the loss of a wicket. Not easy as a school boy. An excellent book for lockdown or indeed any time.
by Mark A Todd
Duncan Hamilton absolutely captures the joys of the County Championship with such accuracy. A wonderful evocative writer. Highly recommended. The Audiobook is also first class with a Great Narrator. On the back of this I have bought his other cricketing books. I’ll also be re-reading this one again, for sure.
by kay Hughes
My husband who is a big cricket fan enjoyed this book
by p fox
The finest cricket writer around in my opinion. This is a brilliant companion to the author’s previous account of a season of county championship cricket in 2009 (I think) called A Last English Summer, which was wonderful. This is a sadder book and feels like a post mortem on the author’s beloved county championship due to the juggernaut of The Hundred competition hurtling towards us. The Hundred, as the author correctly says, is a mutation of cricket designed to appeal to people who don’t like cricket. Absolute madness. Read this to see what real cricket should be.
by S. Moon
Well received by a cricket fan Father.
by Michael
A story of the author’s love for the Red Ball game set primarily in the first class cricket season of 2019 in England. Heavy on the beauties of out grounds and the tradition of the County Championship. Weaves into the story work by Edmund Blunden and Neville Cardus the first of whom I knew little about but found fascinating. Finishes with the case for Red Ball Cricket and concerns about the risks ECB is taking with putting too much of its resources into a new format; “The Hundred”.
Almost too much nostalgia for even for me a huge fan of the four day Championship in England. Makes some of the case as to why the County Championship should be valued and fear it will be lost. Also wonderful story in its conclusion about how there will always be people who want a shorter version of the game.
I would like to see more about why the Championship should be promoted and encouraged to grow its audience alongside the white ball game. The County Championship is a hard fought tournament of 5 months sadly marginalised by the English Cricket authorities. It will never make the monies of the short form of the game but it is the foundation to the Test game which is still hugely profitable and loved in England at least. The Championship is an acquired taste and needs patience and understanding over a period of time but it is so rewarding. Let’s not wallow too much in its nostalgia.
I enjoyed the Book and it was worth reading just for the introduction to Edmund Blunden. If you like County Cricket you will enjoy this book. If you prefer the white ball game and I am not sure this will convert you but please try some longer form.
by Lumpster
I am in my late 40s and love cricket, especially red ball cricket. I am, however, a dying breed and this book is a tribute to the history and traditions of the English red ball game centred around county cricket in the 2019 season but, at times, dipping down to local village cricket whilst also stepping up to Test level (as the author was lucky enough to be at Headingley for the last day of play in the memorable Ashes match). I can relate to the author’s genuine love for the game and his fears for the red ball game becoming increasingly squeezed, although he doesn’t go so far as to offer any possible solutions on how this decline can be reversed and, as such, he could be accused of his love and nostalgia needing to be tempered with a dose of commercial reality. What is annoying is the fact that there are a few typos / grammatical errors in the book, with the most unforgivable one being the mis-spelling of Gary Ballance’s name (‘Balance’ in the book). Otherwise it’s a recommended read although I think you need to be a cricket fan to enjoy it and be able to relate to the author’s outlook.
by Hemingway’s Proofreader
I loved this book. Like the author, I fear for the future of long format cricket and despair of the proliferation of the white ball game, which can only hasten the death of county and Test cricket. I would highly recommend.