Edging Towards Darkness

Cricket matches didn’t always top out at five days, regardless of a result or not – they used to be ‘timeless’, with play continuing until one team won, no matter how many days that took.

The last of these – which took place in Durban in 1939, in a series pitched against the backdrop of impending war – is now universally acknowledged as 'the timeless Test'. Weighing in at a prodigious ten days – the match stretched from 3–14 March 1939, and allowed for two rest days, while one day’s play (the eighth) was lost entirely to rain – it is quite simply the longest Test ever played. A litany of records also perished in its wake and 'whole pages of Wisden were ruthlessly made obsolete'. If that was not enough, one player, the fastidious South African batsman Ken Viljoen, felt the need to have his hair cut twice during the game. Only the matches between Australia and England at Melbourne in 1929, which lasted eight playing days, and West Indies and England at Sabina Park, Jamaica, a year later (seven days), come remotely close in terms of their duration.

In Edging Towards Darkness, John Lazenby tells the story of that Test for the first time. Set firmly in its historical and social setting, the story balances this game against the threat of encroaching world war in Europe – unfolding at terrifying speed – before bringing these two disparate strands together in an evocative and vibrant denouement.

“Almost 80 years on, Lazenby has. meticulously researched. [and] carefully reconstructed the story of one of the game's most notorious Test matches and a tour that was played beneath the gathering clouds of World War II.”

Almost 80 years on, Lazenby has… meticulously researched… [and] carefully reconstructed the story of one of the game's most notorious Test matches and a tour that was played beneath the gathering clouds of World War II. ESPN Cricinfo
Lazenby’s skilful writing has produced a serious contender for book of the year… What are you waiting for? Buy a copy, I can guarantee you’ll love it. Cricketweb

John Lazenby has since 1997 worked as a freelance journalist on national newspapers including The Times, the Sunday Times, the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph and as a sports broadcaster for both radio and television. His first book, Test of Time: Travels in Search of a Cricketing Legend was longlisted for the William Hill Prize, and his last book, The Strangers Who Came Home:The First Australian Cricket Tour of England, was published to critical acclaim.

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