500-1

The events of 1981 hold a matchless place in the hearts of English cricket fans. For the only time in nearly fifty years, the whole country stood transfixed by the course of a Test series, and the fortunes of the English cricket team became a common topic of conversation in homes, schools, offices and pubs throughout the country. Over the course of that summer, during the Third Test, England came from 1-0 down to retain the Ashes 3-1. The events of that match, and the exploits of Ian Botham, Bob Willis, Mike Brearley and Terry Alderman bear constant retelling (unless you happen to be Australian), and Headingley '81 will use contemporary newspaper, TV and radio reports to recreate the fevered atmosphere of the series. The book will also stretch the boundaries of the traditional cricket book by setting the on-field events in the context of a country coming to terms with trends as disparate as Thatcherism, the miners' strike, the New Romantics and the birth of alternative comedy. It will also assess why the match, and the series itself, failed to arrest the decline of English cricket.