Cricket and England

The Independent - article by Jack Williams



Liverpool Echo

"In the unlikely event of the World Cup failing to produce any scandal, there"s plenty here to keep cricket fans awake during rain stoppages."



The Twelfth Man

"This highly academic and studious work seeks to evaluate to what extent cricket reflected the cultural and social time in England between the two World Wars. For those with a keen interest in social and cricket history this book will be required reading, if one does consider it a little expensively priced at £25.00 for a hardback of just 200 pages.An impressive and wide ranging number of reference sources have been consulted, which clearly indicates that this study of the inter-war period and cricket"s rle and place in the social order has been thoroughly researched and evaluated"



The Guardian- " Jack Williams"s excellent (though outrageously overpriced) book...is tightly focussed, well written and adept in putting cricket into a broader culktural framework...Williams is not frightened to ask some big questions and writes for an audience beyond the boundaries of the academic series of which his book is part"



"Cricket and England...attempts to dispell the cosily bucolic notalgia the game has inspired"- The Daily Telegraph



Times Literary Supplement- see file- mixed report



Day by Day- " This intelligent and interesting book considers how the break-up of the United Kingdom may make English cricket represent uniquely English qualities...This carefully researched, tightly written, thorough and detailed cultural and social history of the inter-war years "



Farnham/Haslemere Herald

"This is a brilliant study based on meticulous research and the astute questioning of some impressive sources. It is particularly rewarding when examining the relationship between the amateurs and professionals."



The Journal of the Cricket Society, Vol 19, No 4, Spring 2000

"Thorough and searching, this is a valuable book."



British Society for Sports History, at http://www.umist.ac.uk/UMIST_Sport/Reviews%20May%2099.htm

"Cricket and England is well-researched and well-written, even though there is more than the occasional hint of repetition. It includes many interesting illustrations, some valuable statistical tables and a fine bibliography. It succeeds in demonstrating that cricket was directly related to the politics, culture and religion of inter-war England and showed the strength of social cohesion and cultural conformity of the English society at that time.