The Last Flannelled Fool
My small part in English cricket's demise and its large part in mine
Published on 12. April 2012
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-0-09-192755-4 (ISBN)
Description
Michael Simkins is the ultimate Sunday cricketer - passionate, obsessive, technically inept, and hopelessly deluded. When an injury rules him out of an entire season, not only might it spell the end of his long career, he is faced more immediately with a summer aimlessly wandering garden centres and listening to The Archers.
He decides instead to set off on an odyssey across the counties of England in search of that golden time in his youth when his passion for the game was first kindled. It's a journey that begins in May in light drizzle at the birthplace of cricket, takes in the burial site of his favourite ground (now a Marks & Spencer) and even stops along the way to flirt with the love child of WG Grace and Kerry Katona that is Twenty20. It ends with the ultimate cricketing zenith - returning to the field of play to bowl an over to Freddie Flintoff in fading light in front of a capacity crowd. So can cricket still bring comfort and meaning to his life or is Old Father Time about to call for Michael's bails?
He decides instead to set off on an odyssey across the counties of England in search of that golden time in his youth when his passion for the game was first kindled. It's a journey that begins in May in light drizzle at the birthplace of cricket, takes in the burial site of his favourite ground (now a Marks & Spencer) and even stops along the way to flirt with the love child of WG Grace and Kerry Katona that is Twenty20. It ends with the ultimate cricketing zenith - returning to the field of play to bowl an over to Freddie Flintoff in fading light in front of a capacity crowd. So can cricket still bring comfort and meaning to his life or is Old Father Time about to call for Michael's bails?
Reviews / Votes
One of those rambling, picaresque, unashamedly nostalgic travel books that so enliven a summer afternoon... funny, crafty and written with extraordinary verve * Mail on Sunday * A funny, well-observed obituary of English cricket's eccentric soul * Telegraph * A book you're certain to love -- James Walton * Daily Mail * An amiable, sharp-eyed companion * Independent * Hugely entertaining * We Love This Book * Light, whimsical, well-observed * Daily Telegraph * Simkins is a lively conversationalist, full of the jokes, anecdotes and wisdom from many years' matches * Daily Mail *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Ebury Publishing
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 126 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
376 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-09-192755-4 (9780091927554)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Michael Simkins
The Last Flannelled Fool
My small part in English cricket's demise and its large part in mine
E-Book
07/2011
1st Edition
Ebury Digital
€12.99
Available for download
Person
Michael Simkins trained at RADA. He has appeared in more than 70 plays, stage highlights include A View from the Bridge at the National Theatre as well as musicals Chicago and Mamma Mia. He also directed Alan Ayckbourn's Absent Friends at the Greenwich Theatre. He has made countless TV appearances - recent credits include Foyle's War and My Family - as well as turns on the silver screen in such films as Mike Leigh's Topsy-Turvy. He has worked with luminaries as diverse as Anthony Perkins, John Malkovich, Michael Gambon and Buster Merryfield. He lives with his actress wife Julia in London.