Cricket: A Modern Anthology cover art

Cricket: A Modern Anthology

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

Cricket: A Modern Anthology

By: Jonathan Agnew
Narrated by: Nick Taylor
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £19.04

Buy Now for £19.04

Season's Savings | £0.99/mo for 3 months

£5.99/mo after 3 months - terms apply. Cancel monthly

Jonathan “Aggers” Agnew, England’s voice of cricket, showcases some of the very best writings on the noble game, from the 1930s to the present day.

In this wide-ranging and beautifully-produced anthology, Test Match Special’s Jonathan ‘Aggers’ Agnew, chooses a wide variety of writings on the sport that has consumed his life, from the 1932/33 Ashes (Bodyline) series right up to the present day. In a series of carefully considered, thematically organised reflections, he examines the importance of their contribution to our understanding and appreciation of cricket. With input from several eminent cricketing historians, including the librarian at Lord’s, the book contains a fascinating range of material, from renowned classics to books that have hardly seen the light of day in the United Kingdom (e.g. The Hanse Cronje Story by Garth King); from overseas fiction to modern day autobiographies (Marcus Trescothick, Simon Hughes, Mike Brearley etc.) that have attained classic status. With 75 seminal cricket images, original line drawings and a comprehensive index, this book is a must-have for any self-respecting cricket fan.

 Cricket Sports United Kingdom England
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Critic reviews

Praise for THANKS JOHNNERS:

‘A splendid book…Like TMS it is funny, fluid and conversational.’ THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

‘So good that I felt as if the radio had been surreptitiously switched on and I was, in fact, listening to Test Match Special…it is the easiest and most enjoyable of reads.’
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
All stars
Most relevant

Would you listen to Cricket: A Modern Anthology again? Why?

Yes

What did you like best about this story?

n/a

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Nick Taylor?

Anyone who could pronounce words and names correctly. e.g. lieutenant (pronounced the American way when referring to someone in the British army), Greenidge, Belvoir, etc. as well as those of sub-continetal players.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The part written by Basil D'Oliveira

Any additional comments?

As above. The narration was ridiculous.

Brilliant anthology rather spoilt

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A heartfelt love letter to the greatest game, Jonathan Agnew guides us through some of crickets greatest pieces of writing on the game. My only regret was that Aggers didn't narrate it himself.

if you like cricket, you'll love this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

If you could sum up Cricket: A Modern Anthology in three words, what would they be?

This is hugely enjoyable but the ineptitude of the narrator's pronunciation is remarkable - how can you mispronounce fracas, desultory, inter-necine, to list but a few? One might forgive the occasional lapse but this is like publishing a book with spelling errors on every page - I would love to watch Jonathan Agnew listen to this and wince every other minute at the crassness of some of the narration ("why did I not take 20 minutes to vet the narrator?").

What did you like best about this story?

Playing cricket with mispronunciations - 4 for a name mispronounced ("Green-idge"! "Cardus"). 6 for an utterly normal word oddly stressed or Manuel-ised. Nick Taylor is surely not from Barcelona - and don't call him Shirley.

How could the performance have been better?

The policeman from Allo, Allo? The Two Ronnies?

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The English Patient or Murder Most Foul

Any additional comments?

Buy the book - if only because Jonathan Agnew is a fine man and the book is otherwise really rather marvellous

Great book but...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
There's merit in this book. But the delivery is confused. There's no means of finding which chapter is what book, for example. Aggers, it seems, adds a commentary to each book. But it's not clear where this starts and ends as the same reader is used throughout. The reader also can't pronounce many cricketer's names. Tavare and Greenidge, for example, have bizarre pronunciations.

If you've come for Aggers, he's not here

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
There were some very interesting sories but my enjoyment was spoilt by not knowing when "jonathan Agnew" was telling the story or when it was written by someone else.

It would have been better if JA (or somebody other than Nick Taylor) had narrated all of his bits and Nick Taylor had just read the extracted stories.

Nick Taylor has a clear voice but due to the fact this is non fiction he did not consider "characterising" any of the persons stories

Could Have been edited better and narrated clearer

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews