The Meaning of Cricket

It encapsulates everything that cricket can be and should be, a way of life. It gives much food for thought on the future direction of the game as finance plays an ever increasing role.

I am brand new to the game of cricket. I just started learning about it this year. This book gave me a much better understanding of its history, traditions, and importance. I highly recommend it.

A hauntingly beautiful exploration of the game. Smart, erudite and deeply emotional, part memoir, part psychoanalysis and part history. Some of the best sports writing, not just Cricket writing...

Loved this book.

Great read!!!!!!!!

I've been a fan of Jon Hotten's ever since I stumbled across the Old Batsman blog a few years back. To me, he's in the top three cricket writers alongside Gideon Haigh and Mike Atherton, but he does something quite different to them: he really romanticises the game. I mean that in a flattering way: when I read Jon's work, I immediately start regretting the fact I got into cricket a bit late to actually play it! The book itself covers a wide range of areas, from the wonderful characters of the amateur game to the world of the pros. If you're a cricket fan, love to read about the game AND you've yet to come across Jon Hotten, treat yourself to this. Oh, and pick up the superb Simon Jones biography, The Test, as well: it's the finest cricket biography I've read in the last five years or so - and also Jon's work!

Fabulous and hilarious in parts, one of the finest books read in the recent past..great book by miles..

What a find - many, many anecdotes. Would make a really good Xmas present for a cricket fanatic!!

One of the best cricket books I've read in a long time. Jon Hotten is a lovely, elegant writer, who captures the greatness of cricket at all levels, from the team mate who dreamt of hitting his first ball for six, and perished every time, to what goes through the mind of the pro when facing 90mph bowling.

bought for my husband who is enjoying it and that takes quite a bit of doing, he has so many cricket books it is always hard to buy something for him