Martin Chandler | 9:18am GMT 04 January 2026
For some years now I’ve been within the behavior of starting these half yearly overviews with a have a look at the titles I missed final time spherical, however which have been printed within the final six months. It’s a observe I’ve determined to drop as I’m not satisfied it provides an excellent deal, so any longer I shall not point out such titles if I’ve already reviewed them.
There isn’t a doubt that 2025 was a classic 12 months for cricket literature, so it was by no means going to be seemingly that this 12 months would match it, however there are nonetheless some fascinating titles which, I’ve little doubt, will hold us entertained within the coming months.
To star with there are a number of titles due from Fairfield Books, in addition to their common providing of the 2026 Cricketer’s Who’s Who and the continued quarterly look of The Nightwatchman. These aside the brand new guide that the administration appear most eager on is a group of 40 poems by Ben Wyatt that seize the joy of the 2005 Ashes collection. It bears the title Ragged Splendour: My Summer season on Fireplace. It’s a guide which, after latest occasions, England supporters who keep in mind these heady days of twenty years in the past will flip to with a rheumy eye.
There are two titles due from Oliver Randall, a author whose work I’ve to admit to not being acquainted with, though I clearly shall be by this time subsequent 12 months. The primary, due in Could, is The Literary Cricketers, sub-titled The untold story of a staff that left a everlasting legacy on English Tradition. It issues males like Arthur Conan Doyle, who performed First Class cricket for MCC on the flip of the 20 th century. Primarily a batsman his finest recognized cricketing achievement was nonetheless his single First Class wicket, that of WG Grace in 1900. Cricket lovers PG Wodehouse, JM Barrie, Jerome Okay Jerome and Evelyn Waugh may even function.
Randall’s second guide is due later within the 12 months, however shall be from a unique style. Lord’s and Maharajahs is an account of India’s first Take a look at tour, to England in 1932. There was only a single Take a look at, received by a Douglas Jardine led England, however not earlier than quick bowler Mohammad Nissar had bowled each England openers on the primary morning as the house aspect struggled to 19-3. The cloak and dagger story of the vacationers captaincy will likely be essentially the most fascinating a part of a narrative that was advised on the time by only one author, ‘Three Stumps’, in a slim guide printed in Madras that’s, at this time, extraordinarily troublesome to search out anyplace.
The very best promoting Fairfield title of 2026 will, in my opinion, be one in all two, though I’m positive that the third innings of Scott Oliver’s Sticky Canines and Stardust: When the Legends Performed within the Leagues will promote properly. The 2 nonetheless are as regards to Gloucestershire legends. One is a hero of not so way back, Mark Alleyne, whose life story shall be advised by Stephen Chalke, and the opposite is the autobiography of a person from a technology additional again, Zaheer Abbas, the discharge of which is able to coincide with the go to of the 2026 Pakistan vacationers.
Nd there are two different vital titles due from Fairfield. The primary issues the growing troubling challenge of state faculty cricket and what must be executed to encourage it and make sure that leisure cricket exists for technology and that the state faculties produce their share of high class cricketers. The opposite is a historical past of girls’s cricket in Somerset. 2025 marked the primary 12 months that the county fielded knowledgeable ladies’s cricket staff. This, coming in its a hundred and fiftieth anniversary, was a momentous event. Nevertheless, the historical past of girls’s cricket within the county of Somerset main up up to now is huge, and largely undocumented. The guide will search to vary that.
Transferring in the direction of the south coast Pitch have plenty of books due subsequent 12 months. I shall begin with what to me appears liklely to be essentially the most fascinating, albeit it isn’t really as a result of second half of the 12 months. That could be a new biography of Gubby Allen by Mark Peel. The guide must be pointless as a result of Allen has already been the topic of a full biography, Gubby Allen: Man of Cricket, by that eminent author of the previous EW ‘Jim’ Swanton.
The issue with Swanton’s guide is that it’s the worst type of hagiography, in that it pretends to be one thing else. Hagiography is rarely an excellent factor, however no less than if the author acknowledges he’s writing that type of a guide it isn’t fairly so irritating. When somebody as pre-eminent as Swanton purports to put in writing an goal account however comes nowhere close to doing so then the result’s a disservice to historical past. Allen had many flaws and I’m assured that Peel’s guide will, while acknowledging Allen’s achievements, give a full image of the person.
Transferring backwards the primary Pitch guide of 2026 will, I imagine, be Mark Sands’ Stars on Sunday which is due on the finish of March. It should definitely ring a bell with my contemporaries as it’s a look again on the historical past of the previous John Participant League which, from 1969, allowed us all to observe county cricket on BBC2 each Sunday afternoon, again within the days when bowlers have been restricted to a 15 yard run up and a rating of 200 in 40 overs was thought-about distinctive.
A Image of England: Twenty Years Photographing the England Cricket Crew House and Away by Gareth Copley-Jones (the photographer) and Rory Dollard (the storyteller) will comply with quickly afterwards and can likely be a revealing portrait of the highs and lows of a interval that has been one thing of a rollercoaster journey for followers of the England staff.
And there are 4 extra titles due from Pitch, three in June and one I do know not when. Two of the three are Ladies in White type Raf Nicholson, which is clearly a guide concerning the ladies’s sport and I hope the title aping that of the well-known Wilkie Collins novel means it properly delve again into the distant previous. Tim Brooks’ The Englishman, alternatively I do know nothing in any respect about. The title suggests a biography, however Brooks’ monitor report doesn’t. The third I do know slightly extra about, Jeremy Lonsdale’s biography of Patsy Hendren. It’s a few years because the solely earlier biography of Hendren was printed, written by his Middlesex and England teammate Ian Peebles, and I think Lonsdale’s objectivity and analysis will imply a a lot better guide.
Lastly, and the guide I don’t know an excessive amount of about, is from my childhood hero Frank Hayes which, I imagine, isn’t precisely an autobiography, albeit a guide one thing alongside these strains.
Max Books have three titles within the offing, a type of a restricted version of the aforementioned Frank Hayes guide. The opposite two are one other literary title, this one on William Blake and Cricket, from Malcolm Lorimer. The second is from Bob Hilton and offers with one other facet of the lifetime of Neville Cardus, on this event his time as assistant cricket skilled at Shrewsbury Faculty, previous to the Nice Conflict and his subsequent life as a journalist.
Purple Rose Books, whose output in latest months has been appreciable, solely have two titles they’ll verify at this stage for 2026. The primary is out later this month, and is definitely a distinct segment publication from Stephen Musk. Cricket Again in Blighty: Taking a Break from the White Man’s Burden. The guide places in context ten cricket excursions that came about between the wars and noticed groups of expatriates from West Africa, so what’s now Ghana and Nigeria, go to Musk’s residence county and the supply of a goodly propertion of his writings, Norfolk.
The second Purple Rose title can be from Musk, and that one is from the opposite main supply of his inspiration, North America. This one is a biography of a number one Philadelphian batsman. The title shall be Hand in Glove; George Patterson and Philadelphia Cricket. Regardless of this I’d nonetheless be very stunned if extra books and monographs didn’t seem from Martin Tebay, as both writer or creator.
And we will additionally stay up for three extra monographs from David Battersby, all as regards to Pakistan cricket. The primary will concern Pakistan’s go to to England in 1967, one which was disappointing general for the guests, however which did produce a memorable innings from Asif Iqbal on the Oval. Later within the 12 months there may even be one other monograph on England’s go to to Pakistan ten years later, and in between the 2 an appreciation of the eldest of the Mohammad brothers, Wazir, who handed away in October final 12 months on the grand previous age of 95.
Steve Smith, whose output in 2025 has been prodigious, intends to hold on together with his program of publishing accounts of the excursions made to Philadelphia throughout Victorian and Edwardian occasions. He additionally has the three considerably higher recognized excursions of England by the Philadelphians to cowl so we will anticipate common choices from him. As well as he’s additionally considering a guide as regards to SF Barnes, and his cricketing achievements (of which there have been many) after his fiftieth birthday.
The primary half of 2026 is not going to be the busiest by way of publishing for the ACS, however as well as to their regular statistical volumes; The First-Class Counties Second XI Annual 2026; the ACS Worldwide Cricket Yearbook 2026; and, as an internet publication after final 12 months’s arduous copy experiment, ACS Ladies’s Yearbook 2026, all of which must be out earlier than the brand new English season begins, they do have a pair extra books due.
The primary one is one other guide within the Lives in Cricket collection, and comes with a copper bottomed assure of being glorious as a result of the creator is Max Bonnell. For these unfamiliar with the topic, Jack Walsh, he was a late starter and didn’t play critical aggressive cricket till he was 20. He was 27 when he first performed for New South Wales, and 33 when he signed his first skilled contract with Leicestershire. Wartime robbed him of what ought to have been six prime years of his profession, and but he nonetheless captured 1,190 wickets in first-class cricket and received a fame as one of the entertaining gamers within the county sport.
The opposite ACS guide seems of their Cricket Witness collection. 2026 is the centenary of the formation of the South Wales Hunts CC, Wales’ most well-known and prestigious wandering cricket membership. This guide begins by trying on the very shut hyperlinks between searching and cricket in South Wales in addition to the main figures within the creation of the nomadic membership in 1926. Consideration is then paid to the various characters who’ve represented the Membership, the well-known households who’ve supported the staff each on and off the sphere, in addition to the various grounds the place the Hunts have performed.
The New 12 months may even see the collection of monographs from the Museum of Welsh Cricket proceed. We have now simply seen the looks of Don Bradman and Glamorgan, the fifth within the collection, and there shall be a quantity showing in 2026. These will embrace First Class at Fifteen, trying on the lifetime of Roy Gabe-Jones who made his debut for the county at that age in 1922, Daffodils and Bluebirds, the story of industrialist Sir Herbert Merrett who grew to become Chairman of Cardiff Metropolis FC in addition to President of Glamorgan, and a have a look at BBC protection of Glamorgan cricket together with the way it got here to be that we’ve that priceless footage of Garry Sobers’s six sixes from a Malcolm Nash over at Swansea in 1968.
Transferring to the opposite aspect of the world I dare say there could also be one thing forthcoming on the as but not fairly completed 2025/26 Ashes collection. In England the collection will most likely be known as nearly a debacle – I think Australian writers is likely to be even harsher.
However sufficient of such mainstream topics. What can we stay up for from the Cricket Publishing Firm? Their schedules are typically, like Denis Compton’s calling, finest described as a foundation for negotiation, but when Ronald Cardwell can get all his geese in a row there’s a lot to stay up for.
First to seem shall be from the Cricketers in Print collection, in January. Rex Sellers – Resilience and Perseverance is from the pen of Michael Sexton. Now in his eighties Sellers is a as soon as capped leg spinner. Born in India there are some fascinating insights into the ‘White Australia’ insurance policies of his time, and the way Robert Menzies managed to get Sellers a passport inside 24 hours.
The identical collection may even be prolonged in February when Trevor Chappell: The Trainer’s Journey – A Life Dedicated to Cricket’s Better Goal by Paul Stephenson seems in the identical collection. Something on the lifetime of the youthful Chappell brother is to be welcomed the extra so as a result of this one guarantees to disclose insights into ‘the underarm incident’ that haven’t hitherto been revealed.
Additionally due in February is a biography from the pen of Cardwell himself, Arthur Watson – The Boy from Inverell by Ronald Cardwell. A greater than helpful cricketer in his youth Watson, now aged 85, has since umpired greater than 850 Sydney Grade matches.
By March we must always have Cardwell’s biography of Frank Ward, In Search of Frank Ward. Eleven wickets at greater than fifty runs every in his 4 Checks doesn’t counsel the South Australian leg spinner of the late Nineteen Thirties is essentially the most fascinating topic for a cricketing biography, however my understanding is that it’s the different features of his life which can be the true curiosity within the story.
Additionally due in March we may have a guide on a topic that, to one of the best of my data, has escaped the eye of writers prior to now. Runs on the Board – Each Scoreboard Tells a Story by Stephen Walters is a guide about scoreboards all over the world, slightly than the matches that they faithfully illustrate the progress of.
Transferring on to April we may have one for the memorabilia collectors amongst us, David Jenkins’ The Trials and Tribulations of an Autograph Collector. I’m positive I’ll recognise no less than a number of the issues that Jenkins has encountered down the years.
Along with these there will definitely be a historical past of cricket at Sydney Grammar by James Cattlin, to mark 175 years of the sport there. Past that Cricket Essays by Mike Coward is deliberate in addition to some fascinating biographies. Ronald is working alone on Alan Fairfax and Arthur Chipperfield, on Paul Sheahan with Pat Rodgers and, the one I’ve been trying ahead to for a lot of moons, with James Cattlin on Jim Burke.
Elsewhere in Australia Peter Lloyd and Pat Rodgers have a brand new guide showing, hopefully in March. It’s, little doubt impressed by Lloyd’s very good biography of Charles Macartney, an account of the tour of New Zealand by New South Wales in 1923/24. The occasions of the tour reveal why the complete energy of Australia was not unleashed on their neighbours for therefore a few years. Three of the twelve video games have been drawn, however in two of these the New South Welshmen have been on the point of large victories to go together with the 9 hammerings they did dish out. Solely within the first match in opposition to Wellington did the hosts comfortably draw a match, however even then the hosts have been by no means on high within the sport.
James Service provider has contributed some glorious privately printed restricted editions lately on quite a lot of topics. Yet another ought to see the sunshine of day within the not too distant future. The title has but to be finalised, however it will likely be concerning the Murray Problem Cup, a contest that came about in Western Victoria between 1875 and 1882. It seems like an obscure one and, in some methods, by definition it’s, however the competitors was a showcase for the abilities of the legendary aboriginal all-rounder Johnny Mullagh, and featured plenty of different respectable cricketers as properly.
A few extra mainstream titles from Australia are Ten Out by Ian Brayshaw and The Ashes by Mark Browning. Brayshaw’s guide appears to be like on the bowlers from cricket historical past who’ve taken all ten wickets, so in that it covers the identical subject material as a guide from the ACS a couple of years in the past. The Browning guide, based mostly on the title alone, may imply many issues, however the sub title ties it down; A Entrance Row Seat to an Iconic Period of Take a look at Cricket within the Sixties, a time when it might by no means have occurred to anybody {that a} two day Take a look at match may happen.
And that’s about it from Australia, though I imagine {that a} biography of Clarence ‘Nip’ Pellew is nearly prepared. Pellew performed ten occasions for Australia in 1920 and 1921, eight of which have been received by good-looking margins and the opposite two drawn. In different information there’s nonetheless no launch date that I’m conscious of for a biography of Percy McDonnell, a guide on the dual excursions of 1887/88 and one on that of 1928/29, however I nonetheless imagine all three will see the sunshine of day. One other for the extra distant future is a biography of Invoice Johnston from Ken Piesse.
These taken with Scottish cricket may have seen that nothing extra has been forthcoming in Richard Miller’s Scottish Cricket Reminiscences collection regardless of what I referenced right here for July 2024. Having admitted to spending an excessive amount of of his time helping different individuals with their tasks Richard has promised me that standard service will now resume, so I’ll repeat myself; ‘Quantity 21 goes to be The First Scottish Cricket Union 1879 – 1883 by Neil Leitch, Quantity 22 is The Cricket Grounds of Dundee (Half 1) 1830 – 1890 by Richard himself and Quantity 23 is prone to be The Story of a Cricket Image – Craigmount 1870, once more by Richard himself. Others together with Arbroath United CC – A Historical past, Early Cricket in Dunfermline and a few participant profile collection are additionally in the midst of preparation.’
And at last we’re promised a brand new historical past of the sport, Full Circle: A Historical past of Cricket, a title due in April. I’ve made the statement earlier than that, inside a single quantity, that now appears to be an unattainable job, however I’ve been proved flawed earlier than and, this one written by Peter Oborne and Richard Heller, I think I could also be once more. Even taking into consideration that writer’s blurbs ought to all the time be handled with warning, this one definitely raises expectations;
In its earliest kinds within the 18th century, cricket was a business leisure, a car for playing alongside cock-fighting or wrestling. Within the Victorian period, the game was rejuvenated as a method of holding order in England’s public faculties and more and more grew to become linked with concepts of advantage and manliness. Exported by empire loyalists overseas, cricket took root throughout the globe – wildly efficiently in some international locations, indelibly linked with racism and violence in others, and failing to thrive in sure areas. Always, the authors argue, cricket both evolves or dies. In the present day, the monetisation of cricket suggests it has returned to its unique goal – much less a sport or self-mythologising worth system than a business enterprise to be ruthlessly exploited.
