The King of Spain and I

Martin Chandler | 7:41am BST 24 August 2025

Published: 2025
Pages: 267
Author: Giles, Ashley
Publisher: Fairfield Books
Rating: 4.5 stars

It is a sobering thought that we are now two whole decades on from the remarkable Ashes summer of 2005. For many of us it had seemed that, after the best part of twenty years, it was unlikely that England would ever the win the Ashes back again in our lifetimes. Since that dreadful summer of 1989 England’s performances against Australia had been, by and large, woeful, but then there was that epic contest which, thanks to its availability on terrestrial television, gripped the nation’s imagination in a way that no other series of Test matches had been able to do since 1981.

Slow left arm spinner Ashley Giles was one of England’s heroes in 2005. The tables at the back of the book remind me that he contributed a meagre 155 runs at 19.37, took only 10 wickets at 57.80 and held five catches, proof positive that statistics, despite what some will tell you, do sometimes tell lies.

Overall, in 54 Tests, Giles’ figures were better than that but his final averages were still only 20.89 and 40.60, so not particularly impressive and I was reminded on several occasions during this excellent autobiography that contemporary journalists were often critical of his selection. That much said my recollection is that England’s supporters, by and large, liked and respected ‘Gilo’ even before he found himself there at the end as England edged into a 2-1 series lead at Trent Bridge, and then saved his highest Test match innings for that last afternoon at the Oval and ensured his efforts in Nottingham would not be in vain.

And it is only natural that 2005 should be the centrepiece of The King of Spain and I, but it does not dominate the book to the extent that I had suspected it might and, interestingly, that partnership with Kevin Pietersen at the Oval is not, in the manner of modern sporting autobiographies, the highlight where the author begins his autobiography. In contrast Giles begins his book with a much darker chapter in his life when, in short order, he lost his job as managing director of English men’s cricket after the disastrous 2021/22 Ashes series, and then his beloved mother.

After that unexpected introduction Giles goes back and takes the traditional chronological route through his life. He acknowledges encouragement from, amongst others, George Dobell, but the book is self written and was started as long ago as 2007 when Giles and his family went through what was clearly a most harrowing experience when his wife had to undergo complex brain surgery. Thankfully she came out the other side but alongside Giles’s own struggles with what ultimately proved to be a career ending injury and the issues that he candidly admits to with his mental health the family have clearly had more than their fair share of contact with members of the medical profession.

But this is a book about cricket, and there is much in it about how Giles made his way in the game, and how after doing well in Surrey age group cricket he ended up with Warwickshire and then England. There is not a hint of arrogance in Giles’ writing, and indeed perhaps on occasion he is almost a little too self-effacing. But there is a refreshing honesty about everything he writes, and many reminders about tours and Tests that have not been written about for many years.

Giles also takes his reader into the dressing room with him and gives plenty of insights into life there. Impressively he manages to so without betraying confidences or writing anything that his teammates might feel uncomfortable with. I suppose that might have had to have been different had Giles’s career extended to the days when the relationships between Pietersen and his teammates became so strained in the years that followed his retirement.

The King of Spain and I, although it does start in 2022, effectively ends with the disappointment of the 2006/07 Ashes and, in December 2006, Giles’ final appearance in First Class cricket in the Adelaide Test. Of his subsequent jobs with Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Lancashire and England there is nothing of substance other than the end of the England job. But then the final chapter is entitled The End of the Beginning, so doubtless Giles has already started on a second slice of his life which, I dare say, may well have as long a gestation period as this one. That said even if it is only half as good it will still be well worth reading.