You don’t have to be knowledgeable about cricket to enjoy Peter Pan’s First XI. Kevin Telfer’s account of JM Barrie’s extraordinary collection of players - Arthur Conan Doyle, PG Wodehouse, AA Milne, to name a few - evokes an era and a literary milieu as well as showing Barrie through the lens of his sporting obsession.
Ursula Buchan is to be commended for her research and her writing in A Green and Pleasant Land: How England’s Gardeners Fought the Second World War. Fascinatingly detailed and an excellent read.
Bizarre but nonetheless compelling, Margery Allingham’s Traitor’s Purse sees Albert Campion save the world in wartime. Very slick, and not a word wasted. More on it here.
A.C. Doyle had a sporting obsession too :) I've added A green and pleasant land to my TBR, thanks, and I'm going to visit Margery Allingham now !
Posted by: Iza | 28 March 2021 at 05:23 PM
Yes, Doyle was apparently an excellent cricketer, dismissing (once) even the great WG Grace!
I thoroughly enjoyed the Ursula Buchan, Iza, and I wonder why I don't read Margery Allingham more often as she is so entertaining.
Posted by: Cornflower | 28 March 2021 at 08:24 PM