Stephen Chalke has been exploring cricket's past since the mid-1990s, mostly as an oral historian, interviewing former players and administrators. His first book, `Runs in the Memory', a portrait of county cricket in the 1950s, was Frank Keating's Sports Book of the Year in the Guardian, and he has followed this with several award-winning titles. `At the Heart of English Cricket' - based on the life and memories of the former administrator Geoffrey Howard - was The Cricket Society Book of the Year while his collaborations with Bob Appleyard (`No Coward Soul') and Tom Cartwright (`The Flame Still Burns') were both the Wisden Book of the Year. For ten years he was a regular contributor to the Wisden Cricketer magazine, and he has also written for The Times and the Independent. A collection of his articles, `The Way It Was', won the National Sporting Club's Cricket Book of the Year award, and his history of the county championship, `Summer's Crown', a book sponsored by the England and Wales Cricket Board, was the Cricket Writers' Club's Book of the Year.
`A magnum opus with the lightest of touches. A visually wonderful book. Short on polemic and rich in celebration, it is a deeply humane history. To receive it is a little like being given a huge hamper at Christmas; one is still enjoying fine delicacies well past Twelfth Night.' - Cricinfo. `A superb book. A triumph. There cannot be another cricket author of recent vintage whose books have brought such deep pleasure.' - The Cricketer. `Anyone who loves county cricket should treat themselves to Summer's Crown, Stephen Chalke's wonderful 125th anniversary history of the championship. Its beautifully illustrated and thoughtfully presented pages will be a reminder of why this venerable institution has survived so long and, indeed, has regenerated itself on countless occasions.' - The Times. `I am, quite simply, lost in admiration! Summer's Crown is a really wonderful effort. My own favourite decade is still the 40s, and it is covered beautifully: the innocence, the sense of relief and reclamation, all the old anecdotes and a thousand others. It really is a terrific book.' - John Woodcock. `From Stephen Chalke's tiny but heroic Bath-based publishing house. Brilliantly researched, very well written and lovingly produced, it is a book filled with characters and laughter.' - Financial Times. `An absolute joy. A beautiful history of the county championship, so beautiful I bought it twice - once for me and once for my Dad. I hope it will be updated when Somerset eventually win the trophy, something I trust will happen before this extraordinary competition is abandoned once and for all.' - A reader in Somerset.
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