Following the successful publication of Cricketing Lives last year, Rhiwbina author Richard Thomas’s history of cricket has been published in India.
The book received warm reviews in the UK, with The Critic suggesting that “so colourful and well told is this book, heavy on research but light in touch, that it should interest even those who find the game dull”.
Marcus Berkmann in The Spectator called it “a very good cricketing history indeed, and highly recommended” while the Daily Mail concluded that Richard had written “the kind of book you'd love to settle down with on a winter's night as the wind blows outside, a warm and generous history that glows with love as well as learning”.
Perhaps given the Rhiwbina weather of late, this is the most helpful review of all!
But now, with Speaking Tiger Books releasing the book in India - the world's most populous country and the 'superpower' of modern cricket - Cricketing Lives is reaching an even wider audience.
It has already received positive reviews in The Telegraph (India), and the Deccan Herald which noted that “what sets it apart from other books on cricket is its style” adding that “Thomas’ peculiar interest in peppering the narrative with interesting anecdotes helps readers easily sift through the delectable historiography of the game”.
Excerpts have been published in the Hindustan Times, and Richard – Professor of Journalism at Swansea University – has also been interviewed about the book on a podcast produced by ABP, a large news channel based near Delhi.
Richard dedicates the book to his late father, who sadly died just before it was published in the UK.
Having started his cricket at Llanishen Fach Primary School and then Whitchurch High, Richard confesses to be astonished that the book has been so well received. It might have been published in India he reflects, but “all started in in a back garden in Heol Uchaf”, when his father encouraged him to pick up a bat as a very small child and spent hours (and years) bowling to him. Dads, of course, never get to bat themselves. “I think he’d have been pretty surprised too,” he said. “But proud as well, I think”.
If you're interested in local cricket history, you may like this recent piece about when Rhiwbina CC met mighty Glamorgan.