THAT WILL BE ENGLAND GONE

Sub-titled 'The Last Summer of Cricket', Henderson revisits much-loved places to see how the game of cricket grew up and how it has changed since the day in 1965 when he saw the great fast bowler Fred Trueman in his pomp. He watches schoolboys at Repton, club cricketers at Ramsbottom, and professionals on the festival grounds of Chesterfield, Cheltenham and Scarborough. The rolling English road takes him to Leicester for T20, to Lord's for the most ceremonial Test match, and to Taunton to watch an old cricketer leave the crease for the last time. He is enchanted at Trent Bridge, surprised at the Oval, and troubled at Old Trafford. There are memories of friendships with Ken Dodd, Harold Pinter and Simon Rattle, and the book is coloured throughout by a love of landscape, poetry, paintings and music as well as reflections on his childhood hero Farokh Engineer, and other great players, and there are digressions on subjects as various as Lancashire comedians, Viennese melancholy, and the films of Michael Powell. Lyrical and elegiac, a perfect tribute to cricket, summer and England. 296pp, paperback.