Harold Larwood

Cover Type: Hardcover
Book Condition: Fine
Jacket Condition: Fine
Publisher: Quercus Publishing
Publisher Place: London
Publisher Year: 2009
Edition: First Edition

Description: 387 pages. Book and Jacket appear to have hardly been read and are both in Fine condition throughout.

Publishers Description: The Nottinghamshire bowler Harold Larwood was his countrys chief weapon in the notorious 1932-3 Ashes tour, during which Englands fast bowlers used so-called Bodyline tactics to counter the threat posed by the great Australian batsman Don Bradman. Larwoods pace and hostility left Australias batsmen battered, reduced Bradman to the status of mere mortal - and brought England a 4-1 series victory. But the fury it engendered brought Anglo-Australian relations to the brink of collapse. After the series Larwood was used as a scapegoat by the MCC, which demanded he apologise for his intimidatory bowling. Arguing that he had simply obeyed the instructions of his captain Douglas Jardine, Larwood refused. He never played for England again. Frustrated and depressed, in 1953 he was encouraged to emigrate to Australia by some of the same men he had played against and injured in 1932-3. The saga of Bodyline has been told before, but Larwoods own tale, particularly his attitude to the 1932-3 series and his shoddy treatment by the establishment there-after, has not. Using materials provided by Larwoods family, Duncan Hamilton charts the peaks and troughs of Larwoods from his mining village upbringing, through his rise to stardom, the shock of Bodyline and its traumatic aftermath, to his emigration to Sydney, where he and his family found happiness. Hamilton examines what his story tells us about issues of class and social standing in early 20th-century Britain, and about the codes and hierarchies that existed in a game that distinguish-ed rigidly between public-school amateurs and working-class professionals A thrilling and moving recreation of the triumph, betrayal and redemption of a working-class hero and forgotten titan of English cricket, Harold Larwood will enthral and delight not only cricket fans, but all those who relish biographical writing of the highest quality.

ISBN: 9781847249494