Echoing Greens

There are entertaining titbits. Who knew that HG Wells’s father was the first bowler to take four wickets in four balls? Or that Conan Doyle got WG Grace out? * Telegraph *This well-researched study of cricket’s representation in art and literature depicts a fascinating social history * Country Life *[A] comprehensive survey of cricket in the English imaginative arts … [Cooper] finds examples of cricket’s beguiling, confounding place in the national psyche … His engrossing, often surprising book elegantly demonstrates that the game that inspires so much nostalgia can also be beset with conflict and hypocrisy. Which sounds perfect for a nation with as complicated a history, and contested a literature, as England. * TLS *This entertaining, informative book is a delight for any culturally-minded cricket buff * Critic *Packed with surprising details and forgotten stories, Echoing Greens is a fascinating exploration of the cultural influence that cricket has had on Englishness throughout the centuries * Idler *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 * Choice Magazine *Cooper has delivered something witty, wise and surprising that will have readers hitting Google to find out more about people they thought they knew. He is also admirably up to date * Cricketer *Cooper parses the game’s relics, from the early modern whispers of a game of bat and ball through its rustic Georgian heroics and Victorian Pageantry * Tablet *A glowing history of the romantic aspects of English cricket * Daily Telegraph *Extraordinary … To read Echoing Greens is to be reminded of the astonishing number of times in which cricket is still referenced … one is grateful to Cooper for prompting the thought and I shall return to his book frequently – Paul Edwards * Cricketer *

Born in London’s East End, Brendan Cooper received his BA and PhD from the University of Cambridge. He has published widely on British and American literature, including a critical guide to William Blake and a study of Cold War American poetry. He is the author of Deep Pockets.