A Review By Keith Smith

To be honest I thought this was a book I would dip into. I was wrong. Once started I became absolutely held, fascinated by Duncan’s thoughts on the game past, present and future, and the all encompassing floods of nostalgia that stem from the way he wrote the book as a tribute to a grandfather who taught him to love the game. Far from being just another book about cricket it is part travelogue and part social commentary as he travels from ground to ground over a season and laps up  a huge variety of experiences from the loud, almost coarse atmosphere at a 20/20 match through the more gentle idyllic scenes in village cricket. From Hambledon through Scarborough and Cheltenham to the great Test arenas he takes it all in, and muses about great players, great deeds, the idiosyncracies that make it the tremendous game that it is,  and whether in fact it is all due to be lost at least in its present glorious multicoloured formats. A nostalgic read, and a wonderful one. A book to really enjoy.