{"id":2477,"date":"2026-03-30T14:24:02","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T14:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?p=2477"},"modified":"2026-04-15T10:30:44","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T10:30:44","slug":"ollie-randalls-new-book-on-cricket-and-literature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?p=2477","title":{"rendered":"Ollie Randall’s new book on cricket and literature"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On May 15th, MSt alumnus Ollie Randall is publishing the first of a pair of forthcoming books on cricket and culture with Fairfield Books.<\/p>\n

Writers in Whites<\/em> is the untold story of cricket\u2019s influential role in London\u2019s literary world, from the 1880s to the 1960s. PG Wodehouse used his cricket-playing to launch his writing career. JM Barrie modelled the pirates in Peter Pan after his cricket teammates. Arthur Conan Doyle named Sherlock Holmes after a cricketer he\u2019d played against. They all belonged to a network of cricket-playing writers, who collectively left a permanent legacy on English culture.<\/p>\n

Their teams went by various names, but most often they called themselves the Authors. Based on a wealth of new research, Writers in Whites<\/em> tells the story of this group, from Jerome K. Jerome via Evelyn Waugh to Michael Morpurgo. It wasn\u2019t simply that lots of important writers happened to like playing cricket together. The very act of playing for the Authors influenced their careers and their writings \u2013 both through networking opportunities and by helping to shape their cultural outlook. The literary cricketers weathered scandals and ferocious culture wars, but they also wrote numerous memoirs describing their antics on and around the cricket field.<\/p>\n

Writers in Whites<\/em> draws on their books and unpublished letters, letting these men narrate, in their own words, how literary cricket played a key role in their lives. The full story \u2013 which provides a fresh way of viewing English cultural history from the 1880s to the 1960s \u2013 has never been told before. Literary cricket played a role in the rise of mass literature before the First World War, and in rallying resistance to the Modernists in interwar London. It also drew in some of the great names of twentieth-century Test cricket, such as CB Fry, Douglas Jardine, Learie Constantine, Len Hutton and Richie Benaud as well as cricket writers and reporters such as EV Lucas, Neville Cardus, EW Swanton and Henry Blofeld.<\/p>\n

The book is available to pre-order here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On May 15th, MSt alumnus Ollie Randall is publishing the first of a pair of forthcoming books on cricket and culture with Fairfield Books. Writers in Whites is the untold story of cricket\u2019s influential role in London\u2019s literary world, from the 1880s to the 1960s. PG Wodehouse used his cricket-playing to launch his writing career. JM […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2483,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni_news","category-publications"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-1.png?fit=667%2C1000&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p40Qhf-DX","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1610,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?p=1610","url_meta":{"origin":2477,"position":0},"title":"MSt tutor Roopa Farooki on judging panel for Young Muslim Writers Award","author":"MSt Creative Writing","date":"November 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"MSt tutor Roopa Farooki has been named a judge on the panel for Young Muslim Writers Award 2018. From the announcement: \"The judging panel comprised of 31 award-winning poets, writers, and journalists have been announced for the 8th annual Young Muslim Writers Awards competition. \u00a0The panel of judges have been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "MSt News"","block_context":{"text":"MSt News","link":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/ed61f179ce8cfead9c6ad0a4b34559f837f523b5f5c62af2a633dda6d1bcfa60.0-300x264.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":908,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?p=908","url_meta":{"origin":2477,"position":1},"title":"MSt tutor Roopa Farooki in The Guardian on “Writers on the pain of hindsight in publishing”","author":"MSt Creative Writing","date":"November 17, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"MSt tutor Roopa Farooki is one of six authors on \"Writers on the pain of hindsight in publishing: 'It's like a bad breakup \u2013 you have to move on'\", published in the Guardian, 9th November 2015.","rel":"","context":"In "MSt News"","block_context":{"text":"MSt News","link":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"Farooki_Roopa_6414","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Farooki_Roopa_6414.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1388,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?p=1388","url_meta":{"origin":2477,"position":2},"title":"“Foreign Goods: A Selection of Writing by British East Asian Artists”, edited by, and including a play by, MSt alumna Jingan Young published by Oberon Books","author":"MSt Creative Writing","date":"December 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Foreign Goods: A Selection of Writing by British East Asian Artists , curated and edited by MSt alumna Jingan Young, will be published by Oberon Books on 19 January 2018. It is now available for pre-order. From the announcement: This is the first ever collection of modern dramatic writing by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alumni News"","block_context":{"text":"Alumni News","link":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?cat=15"},"img":{"alt_text":"No automatic alt text available.","src":"https:\/\/scontent.fams1-2.fna.fbcdn.net\/v\/t31.0-0\/p480x480\/23405922_1653862421341151_8729910421626594573_o.jpg?oh=27ec80f0c5bf3b60e5b8990bd90ebc42&oe=5A8F8E34","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1623,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?p=1623","url_meta":{"origin":2477,"position":3},"title":"MSt alumna Maya Popa appointed Publishers Weekly’s poetry reviews editor","author":"MSt Creative Writing","date":"December 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"MSt alumna Maya Popa has been appointed poetry reviews editor at Publishers Weekly.\u00a0 From the announcement: \"Maya C. Popa has joined Publishers Weekly as its new poetry reviews editor, effective immediately. Popa succeeds Alex Crowley in the post and will be responsible for editing PW\u2019s reviews of poetry collections. She\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alumni News"","block_context":{"text":"Alumni News","link":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?cat=15"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Maya-C.-Popa--300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1510,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?p=1510","url_meta":{"origin":2477,"position":4},"title":"MSt tutors Roopa Farooki and Anjali Joseph in Breaking Ground: Celebrating British Writers of Colour","author":"MSt Creative Writing","date":"July 24, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"MSt tutors Roopa Farooki & Anjali Jospeh are listed in Breaking Ground: Celebrating British Writers of Colour. from the brochure: \"Highlighting 200 contemporary British writers of colour, the Speaking Volumes Breaking Ground brochure is an indispensible guide to the wealth and depth of diverse writing talent on our doorstep...\" Read\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.speaking-volumes.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/BG_banner-1170x658.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.speaking-volumes.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/BG_banner-1170x658.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.speaking-volumes.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/BG_banner-1170x658.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.speaking-volumes.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/BG_banner-1170x658.png?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.speaking-volumes.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/BG_banner-1170x658.png?resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1504,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?p=1504","url_meta":{"origin":2477,"position":5},"title":"MSt tutor Helen Mort wins 2018 Andrew Waterhouse Award","author":"MSt Creative Writing","date":"June 29, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"MSt tutor Helen Mort has won the 2018 Andrew Waterhouse Award for Poetry. \"Established in 2000 by New Writing North, the Northern Writers\u2019 Awards supports work-in-progress by new, emerging and established writers across the North of England.\" More information about all of this year's winners\u00a0 and about Helen.","rel":"","context":"In "MSt News"","block_context":{"text":"MSt News","link":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/northernwritersawards.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/069-DSC01955-900x656.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2477"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2531,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2477\/revisions\/2531"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.conted.ox.ac.uk\/mstcw\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}