The Final Innings :The Cricketers of Summer 1939
The Final Innings :The Cricketers of Summer 1939
paperback
Published:
5 August, 2020
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Description
JOINT WINNER OF THE CRICKET SOCIETY and MCC BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 AWARD
The declaration of war against Germany on 3 September 1939 brought an end to the second (and as yet, final) Golden Age of English cricket. Over 200 first-class English players signed up to fight in that first year; 52 never came back. In many ways, the summer of 1939 was the end of innocence.
Using unpublished letters, diaries and memoirs, Christopher Sandford recreates that last summer, looking at men like George Macaulay, who took a wicket with his first ball in Test cricket but was struck down while serving with the RAF in 1940; Maurice Turnbull, the England allrounder who fell during the Normandy landings; and Hedley Verity, who still holds cricketing records, but who died in the invasion of Sicily. Few English cricket teams began their first post-war season without holding memorial ceremonies for the men they had lost: The Final Innings pays homage not only to these men, but to the lost innocence, heroism and human endurance of the age.
Prizes
Joint winner of the Cricket Society & MCC Book of the Year, 2020
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9780750994699 |
| ISBN10 | 075099469X |
| Item Weight | 1000 g |
| Publisher / Reseller | The History Press Ltd |
| Format | paperback |
| Edition | 2nd edition |
Media Reviews
‘The accomplished Sandford orders his material with sensitivity and relates his terrible tale with elegance and dignity. Yet such is the nature of the catastrophe of 1914 that the horror seeps through every page. It is a work of genuine significance.’
‘A very good and timely account of some very brave cricketers.’
-- Ted Dexter‘Congratulations are due for this outstanding piece of work. One of the best books of the year and an essential purchase.’
* The Journal of the Cricket Society *‘The sense of an era closing, unavoidably if shatteringly, permeates Christopher Sandford’s The Final Innings. Sandford well captures the shadows lengthening over cricket – and everything else – in late 1930s England.’
* Wisden's Cricketers' Almanack 2020 *GoodReads Reviews
Author's Bio
CHRISTOPHER SANDFORD is a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines on both sides of the Atlantic. He has written numerous biographies of music, film and sports stars, as well as Union Jack, a bestselling book on John F. Kennedy’s special relationship with Great Britain described by the National Review as ‘political history of a high order – the Kennedy book to beat’. Born and raised in England, Christopher currently lives in Seattle.