Harold Larwood

Author:

By Duncan Hamilton

Awards:

William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award Winner 2009

Format:

Hardback

Availability:

In print, usually dispatched within 3-4 days.

Price:

£20.00 £18.00 (Save 10%)

Tagged with:

Cricket, Biography, Harold Larwood, Bodyline, The Ashes, Nottinghamshire CCC, England

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Further Details

• Published: 2nd Jul 2009
• ISBN: 1847249493
• Pages: 352
• Size: 234mm x 153mm

From Word of Sport:

Fresh from editing last summer's delightful work on JM Kilburn, Hamilton turns his attention to one of the most infamous names in Ashes history. Under orders from his captain Douglas Jardine, Larwood faithfully carried out the 'leg theory' bowling attack designed to negate Bradman. Although it successfully won the series for England, the Bodyline tour caused controversy like no other. If the story is familiar, we're still looking forward to this and with Hamilton's track record, we're expecting it to become the definitive work on Larwood.

From the Publisher:

The Nottinghamshire bowler Harold Larwood was his country's chief weapon in the notorious 1932-3 Ashes tour, during which England's fast bowlers used so-called 'Bodyline' tactics to counter the threat posed by the great Australian batsman Don Bradman. Larwood's pace and hostility left Australia's 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 Larwood's 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 Larwood's family, Duncan Hamilton charts the peaks and troughs of Larwood's life: 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.