The Literary Lounge

How’s That!

A Layman’s Guide to Cricket

I wrote this popular introduction to cricket in 1998, but it went out of print after TD Publications ceased trading in 2007. In 2013, however, I decided to make it available again, both in print and as an e-book, and it was completely revised and brought up to date.

To my delight its popularity was unabated: it went straight to the Number One spot in Kindle books on cricket, and stayed there for a good while too!

I think the key to its popularity is that it’s light-hearted but not facetious, and it is easy to follow. It is illustrated with loads of witty cartoons drawn by Tim Parker. As one reviewer said when it first came out in 1998, ‘it does exactly what it says on the tin!’ And then, of course, there is the indisputable fact that it knocks the competition into a cocked hat!

The way I came to write it was interesting in itself. Over a period of something like fifteen years, a large number of foreign students used to board with us while studying at a local School of English. Not unnaturally, they invariably wanted to know why I was spending so many hours watching this strange game called Cricket on television. It was then that I realised just how difficult it was to explain the game of cricket to somebody who knew nothing about it at all. Then I discovered how inadequate all the books in existence were; the obvious answer was to write my own book, and to try it out on these guinea-pigs – from Spain, Italy, Taiwan, Japan, Russia and pretty well any other country you could name – as it progressed.

I knew I was on to a winner when I came home one day and found a Spanish boy named Francisco sitting in the lounge watching a test-match on television!

How’s That! is available both as an e-book and as a paperback.
The e-book can only be obtained from Amazon for only £1.99, but the paperback version can be obtained both from Feedaread (£3.99) and from Amazon for £4.99 ($7.89 from Amazon.com). Click here for the Amazon link.

If you want to order it from a bookstore, you may need the ISBN, which is 978178299903.

By the way, the price was £5.99 when it first came out in 1998!

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