My dear dad Des got me interested in cricket from an early age, and he and Mum gave me my first cricket book – a coaching book. This was followed by “The Bert Sutcliffe Book of Cricket for Boys” and it wasn’t long before I was asking for a cricket book, as my favourite present for birthdays and Christmases!
A major cricket book moment occurred when I was at high school, and someone told me about Smith’s Bookshop on Manchester Street having a lot of cricket books. So I duly went along and sure enough there were shelves of them upstairs, which soon began absorbing the pay from my after school job! I continued to buy cricket books (not consciously collecting them, but the numbers were growing) mainly from Smith’s and also from Whitcoulls.
Then in 1979 I was in England on holiday and went and visited JW McKenzie, Bookseller (in Epsom, just out of London) who again someone had mentioned. And he had a whole big ROOM full of cricket books, many I’d never seen or heard of before, what a treasure trove! He made me very welcome and I ended up with as many books as I could carry out of there. And since then he sends out a catalogue every 2-3 months, so I have ordered and received hundreds of cricket books from him since that initial memorable meeting, his service is always impeccable.
I also enjoyed it when both Dymocks and Borders had branches here in Christchurch, as they were always well stocked with new cricket books. But since they both sadly for me closed, I mainly buy locally from Whitcoulls and Paper Plus. While occasional holidays in Australia are also always a rich source of cricket books (as many of the ones there are never released here in NZ), my record for a trip over the ditch was coming home with 32 cricket books!
So my current tally of cricket books is approximately 1700, plus numerous cricket almanacs and annuals and a modest collection of Wisdens. They are all arranged in author’s alphabetical order in the cricket library in our house (which was originally the 3rd bedroom). And here I must pay full tribute to my long suffering but ever supportive partner Sharon, who has sometimes joked that I should buy a particular cricket book as we are short of books with that coloured cover!
The oldest books in the collection were both published in 1898 and are “With Stoddart’s Team in Australia 1897-98” by Prince KS Ranjitsinhji and “With Bat and Ball” by George Giffen. There are another two of sentimental significance from my early days; namely “Great Cricketers” edited by Denzil Batchelor (published 1970) and given to me by parents, plus “Fred; Portrait of a Fast Bowler” by John Arlott (published 1971). Both of which I have reread a number of times.
I also have one of the original 1000 copies of the big gold-leafed “Men in White; The History of New Zealand in International Cricket” which I purchased with money that my dear grandfather had left me, so that of course has sentimental significance.
While of all the cricket books I have read, my favourite autobiography is still John Wright’s classic “Christmas in Rarotonga”.