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Cricket In Fiction
The sport of cricket has long held a special place in Anglophone culture, and a specialised niche in English literature. Cricket is the official summer sport in England, and it is widely known as the "gentleman's game", owing to the unique culture of the sport and its emphasis on ideals such as grace, sportsmanship, character and complexity. Cricket has therefore often attracted the attention (and in some cases, fandom) of the literati – Lamb, Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt were all players of the game – and some of the greatest English writers have written about cricket. This was particularly true in the era before the Second World War, for example, during the Edwardian era, and in the 1920s and 1930s. Victorian literature An early chapter of Dickens's famous first novel ''The Pickwick Papers'', serialised as early as 1836, features a brief description of a cricket match between the All-Muggleton team and the Dingley Dell Cricket Club. Mr Pickwick watches as Mr Jingle provides a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striking the ball bowled at one of the wickets with the bat and then running between the wickets, while the bowling and fielding side tries to prevent this (by preventing the ball from leaving the field, and getting the ball to either wicket) and dismiss each batter (so they are "out"). Means of dismissal include being bowled, when the ball hits the stumps and dislodges the bails, and by the fielding side either catching the ball after it is hit by the bat, but before it hits the ground, or hitting a wicket with the ball before a batter can cross the crease in front of the wicket. When ten batters have been dismissed, the innings ends and the teams swap roles. The game is adjudicated by two umpires, aided by a third umpire and match referee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field of crime fiction. Doyle was a prolific writer; other than Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories about Professor Challenger and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldier Brigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, " J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the ''Mary Celeste''. Name Doyle is often referred to as "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" or "Conan Doyle", implying that "Conan" is part of a compound surname rather than a middle name. His baptism entry in the register of St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, gives "Arth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dudley Carew
Dudley Charles Carew (3 July 1903 – 22 March 1981) was an English journalist, writer, poet and film critic. Life and career Carew was educated at Lancing College, where he was the best friend of Evelyn Waugh. Later in life, Waugh spurned Carew, but in spite of this Carew continued to be Waugh's loyal supporter, including denying the allegations of youthful homosexuality that had been made against him. In 1928 he married Anthea Gamble. The marriage was not a success, and they divorced just five years later. He was a special correspondent of ''The Times'' in the 1920s and 1930s, and reported on cricket matches for the paper. From 1945 until his retirement in 1963 he was the paper's film critic, and also wrote book reviews and amusing fourth leaders.''The Cricketer'', June 1981, p. 35. Almost all his articles for ''The Times'' were written anonymously, as was the paper's policy until William Rees-Mogg became its editor in 1967. John Arlott wrote of him: It was, perhaps, unfort ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books by decree in 1586, it is the second oldest university press after Cambridge University Press. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics known as the Delegates of the Press, who are appointed by the vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford. The Delegates of the Press are led by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as OUP's chief executive and as its major representative on other university bodies. Oxford University Press has had a similar governance structure since the 17th century. The press is located on Walton Street, Oxford, opposite Somerville College, in the inner suburb of Jericho. For the last 500 years, OUP has primarily focused on the publication of pedagogical texts and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hugh De Sélincourt
Hugh de Sélincourt (15 June 1878 – 20 January 1951) was an English author and journalist, chiefly remembered today for his timeless tale of village cricket, ''The Cricket Match'' (1924). Biography De Sélincourt was born in Hampstead, a suburb of north London. His parents were Charles Alexandre De Sélincourt and Theodora Bruce Bendall. He was the youngest son of 11 children, among them Ernest and Agnes. He studied at Dulwich College before going on to University College, Oxford. During the 1910s, he worked as a journalist, initially as drama critic of the ''Star'' and later as literary critic of the ''Observer''. He continued to write book reviews for the ''Observer'' long after quitting his official post in 1914. He had also published a few light-hearted novels – the first of these, ''A Boy's Marriage'', came out in 1907 – but after World War I broke out, his literary output took on a more serious note. As war ended in 1918, his writings too resumed their former gaie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Murder Must Advertise
''Murder Must Advertise'' is a 1933 mystery novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, the eighth in her series featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. Most of the action of the novel takes place in an advertising agency, a setting with which Sayers was familiar as she had herself worked as an advertising copywriter until 1931. Plot Death Bredon arrives at Pym's Publicity Ltd, an advertising agency, to take up the post of junior copywriter. He is assigned the room of his predecessor Victor Dean, who has died in a fall down the office's iron spiral staircase. The doctor states that death was caused either by a broken neck, due to his landing on his head at the bottom of the stair, or by a wound of the right temple. The death appears suspicious, as the victim apparently made no attempt to save himself as he fell. In Dean's desk Bredon discovers a part-completed letter to the firm's proprietor, Mr Pym, telling him that something 'undesirable' had been going on in the office. Bredon befriends Pamela Dean, s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dorothy Sayers
Dorothy Leigh Sayers (; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime writer and poet. She was also a student of classical and modern languages. She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between the First and Second World Wars that feature English aristocrat and amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. As a crime writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Sayers was considered one of its four " Queens of Crime", alongside Agatha Christie, Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh. Sayers is also known for her plays, literary criticism, and essays. She considered her translation of Dante's ''Divine Comedy'' to be her best work. Sayers's obituarist, writing in ''The New York Times'' in 1957, noted that many critics at the time regarded her mystery ''The Nine Tailors'' as her finest literary achievement. Biography Childhood, youth, and education Sayers, an only child, was born on 13 June 1893 at the Headmaster's House on Brewer Stree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lord Peter Wimsey
Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey (later 17th Duke of Denver) is the fictional protagonist in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers (and their continuation by Jill Paton Walsh). A dilettante who solves mysteries for his own amusement, Wimsey is an archetype for the British gentleman detective. He is often assisted by his valet and former batman, Mervyn Bunter; by his good friend and later brother-in-law, police detective Charles Parker; and, in a few books, by Harriet Vane, who becomes his wife. Biography Background Born in 1890 and ageing in real time, Wimsey is described as being of average height, with straw-coloured hair, a beaked nose, and a vaguely foolish face. Reputedly his looks are patterned after those of academic and poet Roy Ridley, whom Sayers briefly met after witnessing him read his Newdigate Prize-winning poem "Oxford" at the Encaenia ceremony in July 1913. Wimsey also possesses considerable intelligence and athletic ability, evid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Memoirs Of A Fox-Hunting Man
''Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man'' is a novel by Siegfried Sassoon, first published in 1928 by Faber and Faber. It won both the Hawthornden Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, being immediately recognised as a classic of English literature. In the years since its first appearance, it has regularly been a set text for British schoolchildren. Background Prior to its publication, Siegfried Sassoon's reputation rested entirely on his poetry, mostly written during and about World War I. Only ten years after the war ended, after some experience of journalism, did he feel ready to branch out into prose. So uncertain was he of the wisdom of this move that he elected to publish ''Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man'' anonymously. It is a depiction of his early years presented in the form of an autobiographical novel, with false names being given to the central characters, including Sassoon himself, who appears as "George Sherston". Sassoon was motivated to write the work by a war in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
War Poet
A war poet is a poet who participates in a war and writes about their experiences, or a non-combatant who writes poems about war. While the term is applied especially to those who served during the First World War, the term can be applied to a poet of any nationality writing about any war, including Homer's ''Iliad'', from around the 8th century BC as well as poetry of the American Civil War, the Spanish Civil War, the Crimean War and other wars. The Old Testament The Book of Psalms contains many works of Hebrew poetry about war, many of which are attributed to King David, the second monarch of the Kingdom of Israel, who is said to have reigned c. 1010–970 BC. The story of David's rise from shepherd to King also inspired the '' Davidiad'', which is a 1517 heroic epic poem in Renaissance Latin by lawyer, judge, and Renaissance humanist Marko Marulić, who spent his life in Split, Croatia, which was under the rule of the Republic of Venice. In addition to the small portion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's view, were responsible for a jingoism-fuelled war. Sassoon became a focal point for dissent within the armed forces when he made a lone protest against the continuation of the war in his "Soldier's Declaration" of 1917, culminating in his admission to a military psychiatric hospital; this resulted in his forming a friendship with Wilfred Owen, who was greatly influenced by him. Sassoon later won acclaim for his prose work, notably his three-volume fictionalised autobiography, collectively known as the "Sherston trilogy". Early life Siegfried Sassoon was born to a Jewish father and an Anglo-Catholic mother, and grew up in the neo-gothic man ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
England, Their England
''England, Their England'' (1933) is an affectionately satirical comic novel of 1920s English urban and rural society by the Scottish writer A. G. Macdonell. It is particularly famed for its portrayal of village cricket. Social satire One of a genre at the time, the novel examines the changing nature of English society during the interwar period. The style and subject matter recall the works of Evelyn Waugh and P. G. Wodehouse, Macdonell's contemporaries, as well as earlier writers such as Jerome K. Jerome. It is also known for its description of traditional village cricket. The novel is purported to be a roman à clef. The novel won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction in 1933. The title alludes to the refrain "England, My England" of the poem "Pro Rege Nostro" by William Ernest Henley. Plot Set in 1920s England, the book takes the form of a travel memoir by a young Scotsman who has been invalided away from the Western Front, "Donald Cameron", whose father's wil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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