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Latest book reviews

The pick of the latest hardbacks and paperbacks, reviewed by Simon Evans

Echoing Greens, by Brendan Cooper

The noble sport of cricket has always embodied a particular type of genteel Englishness; its gentle rhythms and the whack of willow on leather as timeless and constant as Rupert Brooke’s Old Vicarage, Grantchester, with its church clock standing at ten to three and honey still on the menu for tea.

In this wonderful book Brendan Cooper looks at how cricket has inspired poets, artists, dramatists and authors down the ages, from medieval manuscript illustrations to the paintings of Turner, from the poetry and art of William Morris to the work of Lord Byron, who, not terribly successfully, played in the first ever Eton v Harrow cricket match at the forerunner of today’s Lords cricket ground.

Cooper examines that very English yearning, embedded deep in our culture, for a lost rural arcadia, a theme present in the writings of the great cricket writer Neville Cardus, who viewed cricket “as a way of being fully alive in summer, in England; properly connected to the pulse and patterns of the land.”

He also considers cricket’s more humorous representations, from Monty Python and the Young Ones to Ever Decreasing Circles and Outside Edge, as well as some of the sport’s most enduring images, including, most memorably, Andrew Flintoff consoling the Australian Brett Lee after England’s nail-biting victory at Edgbaston during the 2005 Ashes series.

“It is obvious Flintoff is not just going through the motions of a post-match handshake,” Cooper writes. “It is a moment of real emotion, and that’s why it is so affecting. Flintoff is not just a sportsman here. He is a moral tutor, a living embodiment of big-hearted grace.”

If cricket is the perfect summer sport then this, in its way, is the perfect summer book, an ideal companion for long, wistful days on the boundary edge.

Published by Constable Price £25 Pages 336 ISBN 9781398525245

Richie Benaud’s Blue Suede Shoes, by David Kynaston and Harry Ricketts

It could be an expensive summer for cricket fans as this is another must-read, this time documenting one of the great Ashes test matches from a series that may have faded from memory but still ranks as something of a turning point in this ages-old rivalry.

The match in question took place from July 27 to August 1, 1961, at Old Trafford, Manchester, the fourth test of a hard-fought Ashes series that was at that point all square, each side having won one test apiece.

Beyond the boundary rope the turbulent Sixties were being ushered in and the changes that decade would herald appeared to be embodied in the difference between the two captains; the Australians’ Riche Benaud was buccaneering and charismatic while England’s Peter May, although supremely gifted as a player, tended to be risk averse and timid in his approach to captaincy and redolent of an age of amateurism and Empire.

What makes the book so compelling is how Kynaston and Ricketts interweave the wider social changes already starting to take place with a blow by blow account of the match, providing not just an in-depth portrait of a memorable game but also a valuable slice of social history.

Published by Bloomsbury Price £20 Pages 322 ISBN 9781526670298

Bloody Panico!, by Geoffrey Wheatcroft

In 2005 the journalist and historian Geoffrey Wheatcroft published The Strange Death of Tory England, an account of how the Conservatives had surrendered their reputation as the natural party of government and faced potential electoral oblivion in the face of Tony Blair’s all-conquering New Labour.

In retrospect the title proved to be a touch premature – within five years a Tory-led government would take office and, until July 4 at least, the Conservatives are still in power. But the title of Wheatcroft’s earlier book has never been more prescient, and this enjoyably bilious follow-up delves into the reasons why the Conservative Party now faces the very real prospect of political oblivion.

Wheatcroft inevitably focuses on the turbulent past 14 years, but also delves into the party’s history, revealing a unique ability for reinvention that now seems to have deserted it.

He also examines how, despite its name, the party has been willing to disrupt the status quo, with Margaret Thatcher and Liz Truss being part of a long line of Tory leaders, dating back to the Jacobite revolts, who have followed the maxim ‘if we want everything to remain as it is, everything must change’. More recently, however, Conservative governments, especially under the hapless Rishi Sunak, have appeared content merely to manage decline.

At a time when culture wars and identity politics seem to have replaced the class struggle of old the Conservative Party also seems to have forgotten the words of Lord Salisbury, namely “whatever happens will be for the worse, and therefore it is in our interest that as little should happen as possible.” Well a lot is about to happen, whether the Tory party likes it or not, and who knows how much of it will be for the worse.

Published by Verso Price £14.99 Pages 176 ISBN 9781804295755

The Wild Swimmers, by William Shaw

This is the fifth in the excellent DS Alex Cupidi series and is just as richly immersive as its predecessors. Against the backdrop of the beautifully evoked Romney Marsh and Dungeness, DS Cupidi, newly returned to duty, faces perhaps her most challenging case yet after her troubled daughter Zoe discovers the body of a dead wild swimmer.

Alex embarks on a quest for the mystery man who may hold the key to the case but the involvement of a friend and colleague adds another complication.

As usual the story rattles along, but never at the expense of its main characters, and with one of them being placed in peril halfway through you’ll find yourself galloping through the pages to solve the mystery that lies at the heart of the novel.

Published by riverrun Price £20 Pages 384 ISBN 9781529420128

I Was There, by Alan Edwards

Although their job may appear to be impossibly glamorous, the job of the music publicist can be a thankless one; often involving excusing and indulging the appetites and whims of those they are charged with promoting.

Despite this, or perhaps because of it, these publicists are often the nicest of people and in my experience Alan Edwards, one of the leading publicists of the past four decades, is one of the good guys.

His excellent memoir is typically self-deprecating and unfailingly honest, casting a bemused eye on his youthful antics while providing fascinating portraits of some of the artists he worked for and encountered, from the Spice Girls and the Sex Pistols to The Who and Amy Winehouse.

He relates how Marc Bolan rushed round to help man the phones when Alan’s boss at the time, legendary publicist Keith Altham, suffered what was suspected to be a heart attack but turned out to be the after effects of a particularly strong joint.

He also tells of the press conference set up for heavy rockers Uriah Heep, and how the realisation gradually dawned that shepherding a bunch of tired and emotional journalists up to a revolving restaurant high in the Swiss Alps – on ski lifts – might not have been the best idea he ever had.

The heart of the book, however, is Alan’s long relationship with David Bowie, which spanned more than 30 years, as client, confidante and friend, and provides a fascinating insight into the star’s meticulous approach to his art, and not always obvious sense of fun. David Bowie discussing England’s defensive shape during the 2002 World Cup – who’d have thought it?

The later chapters, where Alan enters the world of celebrity PR are gossipy and fun but less interesting unless you have a special interest in Posh and Becks, Big Brother and the rest. The section where Alan becomes a victim of the phone-hacking scandal, and worse, is however genuinely chilling, a reminder of the bad old days of the tabloid wars.

Published by Simon & Schuster Price £25 Pages 312 ISBN 9781398525245

The Searchers, by Andy Beckett

With the left of the Labour Party seemingly in terminal retreat, Andy Beckett’s study of five of its key figures was in danger of reading like an epitaph rather than a history of a living, breathing movement. But if Keir Starmer’s majority is anywhere near as big as has been predicted then, paradoxically, there could be a space for a revival of the left should things to go wrong, given the traditional difficulties faced by governments with big majorities policing restive back-benchers.

Seven years ago, it was all very different; Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour Party leader and subsequent moral victory at the 2017 General Election marked the high water mark of the left’s ascension to the commanding heights of the party, something Tony Benn could only have dreamt about when he underwent his own personal transformation from centrist state socialist to grass roots agitator back in the late Sixties.

Benn is one of the five figures that are the subject of Beckett’s excellent joint biography, the others being Ken Livingstone, John McDonnell, Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott, a veritable rogues’ gallery for anyone on the right, but all of them vital to any understanding of politics from the Seventies up to today.

Beckett examines how this group of mavericks, inspired by the social, political and cultural upheavals of the late Sixties, sought to take power from below, by forging links with similarly minded pressure groups and political movements. And what’s fascinating is not only how they went about this – all the soul-wrenching smoke-filled committee rooms, Xerox leaflets and half empty protest meetings that were the stuff of politics in the pre-internet age – but also the sometimes complex relationships that were formed between them, often close, but sometimes fraught. And, a warning from history, the Labour left have been written off many times before but have a habit of bouncing back – who’s to say history won’t repeat itself.

Published by Allen Lane Price £25 Pages 560 ISBN 9780241394229

The Mercy Chair, by MW Craven

After a two year break MW Craven’s most popular character, detective extraordinaire Washington Poe, is back in perhaps his darkest and most intriguing case to date. Aided, as always by his intrepid sidekick, super brainbox Tilly Bradshaw, Poe investigates a sinister cult and a murder with biblical overtones. Somehow it all ties up with the massacre of a family 15 years earlier and the discovery of a dead body buried underneath a coffin. Puzzles within puzzles, it’s a great read, and Craven’s best yet. Another Poe novel will follow next year.

Published by Constable Price £20 Pages 432 ISBN 9780349135564

Also recommended…

Alvesdon (Bantam, £16.99) is an evocative new novel from historian James Holland that begins in 1939 Wiltshire, with the imminent threat of war, and traces how the early years of the conflict, up to the Battle of Britain, impact three generations of one family. And new to paperback is The Savage Storm (Penguin, £10.99), James’s acclaimed study of the brutal 1943 battle for Italy…

Drawing on his vast experience reporting on global security stories, Invasion (Bantam, £19.99) is the new novel from BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner, focussing on M16 operative Luke Carlton’s race against time to prevent China invading Taiwan and all the devastating repercussions that would involve…

A police officer is haunted by a tragedy in her past and a ghostly vision in Mo Hayder’s chilling thriller Bonehead (Hodder, £22), and Think Twice (Century, £22) is the latest page-turner from Harlan Coben, a twisty tale that asks the question, how can a man who’s already dead be wanted for murder?…

A gruesome murder scene brings back traumatic memories for detective Jazzy Solanki in Liz Mistry’s The Blood Promise (HQ, £9.99), the first in a promising new series featuring the inspired pairing of Scottish female cops Solanki and McQueen…

Someone in the Attic (Bantam, £14.99) is Andrea Mara’s chilling new thriller, The Death Watcher (Simon & Schuster, £20) is Chris Carter’s latest addition to the hard-hitting yet compelling series of LA-set Robert Hunter thrillers and The Wrong Hands (Sphere, £22) is the second in Mark Billingham’s new series featuring dancing DI Declan Miller…

Mike Rapport’s City of Light, City of Shadows (Bridge Street Press, £30) chronicles Paris during what is regarded as its golden age, the Belle Epoque, a period that ran from the revolutionary 1870s to the outbreak of war in 1914…

A Cage Went In Search of A Bird (Abacus, £18.99) is a collection of suitably off-the-wall short stories inspired by the writer Franz Kafka, marking the centenary of his death. Contributors include Ali Smith, Joshua Cohen and Keith Ridgway…

A Grave In The Woods (Quercus, £22) is the latest in Martin Walker’s colourful series of Dordogne Mysteries set in rural France and finds country cop Bruno investigating a long-buried war crime and facing a devastating flood…

Academy Award-winning film director Neil Jordan, responsible for such landmark films as Mona Lisa, The Crying Game and Michael Collins, looks back movingly on his early life and career highlights in Amnesiac (Head of Zeus, £25), and TV presenter Henry Cole embarks on a journey by motorbike across America’s most famous highway in Riding Route 66 (Quercus, £22), a personal odyssey that “encapsulates struggle and, ultimately, triumphing over unimaginably difficult conditions”…

Six key novels by the influential writer JG Ballard have been reissued by 4th Estate with striking new jacket designs. They include the dystopian masterpieces The Atrocity Exhibition, The Drowned World, Super Cannes and Crash! as well as the more conventional post 9/11 thriller Millennium People and his wonderful semi-autobiographical, Empire of the Sun…

Lesley-Ann Jones provides a revealing portrait of her friend, the late Fleetwood Mac member Christine McVie, in Songbird (Bonnier, £22), and one of the faces of the Sixties, model Penelope Tree, draws on her extraordinary life, including her relationship with the photographer David Bailey, for the evocative novel Piece of My Heart (Moonflower, £18.99)…

Anne Corlett’s imaginative The Theatre of Glass and Shadows (Black & White, £16.99) is set in an alternate London, where the south of the capital is taken up by a sprawling Theatre District and a production that has been running for centuries. Into this closed world comes Juliet, seeking answers to her identity and her mother’s death – but the show must go on, at all costs… 

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