Winner of the William Hil Sports Book of the Year and acclaimed as a magesterial, classic work, A Social History of English Cricket is an encyclopaedic survey of the game, from its humble origins all the way to modern floodlit finishes. But, it is also the story of English culture, mirrored in a sport that has always been a complex repository of our manners, hierarchies and politics. Sir Derek Birley's survey of the impact on cricket of two world wars, Empire and 'the English caste system', will, contends Ian Woolridge, 'teach an intelligent child of twelve more about their heritage than he or she will ever pick up at school'. Superbly witty and humorous, peopled by larger-than-life characters from Denis Compton to Ian Botham, and wholly forswearing nostalgia, A Social History of English Cricket is a tour-de-force by one of the great writers on cricket.