The Chappell Chronicles

Martin Chandler | 8:16am BST 19 October 2025

Published: 2025
Pages: 302
Author: Chappell, Greg and Piesse, Ken
Publisher: Wakefield Press
Rating: 3 stars

It doesn’t seem like the best part of fifteen years since Greg Chappell’s autobiography appeared, but it was. Fierce Focus was a comprehensive account of Chappell’s life and much impressed our reviewer, Marco Trevisiol.

So how does Chappell justify yet another book that sounds like it may be an autobiography? It might have been tricky, were it not for his choice of collaborator on this project, Ken Piesse. The most prolific Australian cricket writer there is, Piesse has had no difficulty in marshalling Chappell’s thoughts into an entertaining narrative and whilst some of the ground covered in Fierce Focus is looked at again a good deal of the book deals with Chappell’s thoughts on more recent developments in the game.

But when you come from a famous family you have to introduce them, and Chappell has an interesting take on why younger brother Trevor Chappell could, with different handling as a youngster, have been the best of the brotherhood.

Trevor of course crops up again in one of the few episodes from Chappell’s playing career that he reprises. It is a shame that the ‘underarm’ incident seems to keep coming back to haunt him. Perhaps it is just contrariness brought on by being English but now, as at the time, I have always thought Chappell’s explanation for the episode an understandable one, and that he is rather more ready to don sackcloth and ashes than he should be.

For the most part however The Chappell Chronicles is made up of material that Chappell hasn’t visited in print before, The short and to the point chapter headings give an excellent indication of the content. They are Greats of the Game, Heroes, Humour, Interlude, Interviews, Memories, Opinions, Personalities, Previews, Skills and Secrets, Valediction and Visions.

Those chapters each contain a number of short pieces, meaning that The Chappell Chronicles is one of those books you can dip in and out of whenever you have a few minutes to spare. Different people will start in different places, but for me Valediction was that place. Obituaries are almost always interesting, and the more so when the obituarist knew his subject well and Chappell’s impressions of Ian Redpath, Keith Stackpole, Rod March, Ashley Mallett, Martin Crowe and Shane Warne are, without exception, moving tributes.

And perhaps it is simply a sign of my age that I did tend to enjoy more the writing that harks back to my youth. I particularly enjoyed the chapter entitled Personalities and the essay on Jeff Thomson; Thommo was a remarkable force of nature – unpredictable, electrifying and utterly Australian is a brilliant introduction.

In similar vein, time-wise, I found much to savour, in other sections of the book, in Chappell’s reflections on Bob Massie’s remarkable debut at Lord’s in 1972, and his memories of his own first Test when he scored a century at the WACA in the 1970/71 Ashes series, in the face of bowling from John Snow that he likens to Bodyline.

Any book of this kind will benefit from not always taking itself too seriously, and the chapter titled Humour, although short, is a most enjoyable diversion. The main story comes from Chappell’s first County Championship appearance for Somerset in 1968. The opponents were Yorkshire, and there is a starring role for Freddie Trueman, in his last season of county cricket. Stories of Trueman abound of course, some borrowed, some exaggerated and some aprocyphal. I suspect however that the one Chappell relates is probably pretty much what actually happened.

The Chappell Chronicles is an entertaining selection of writings, and a credit to both Chappell and Piesse. It is available as a paperback or a limited edition hardback, both of which can be sourced from Piesse’s online emporium.