The Englishman
Martin Chandler |Published: 2026
Pages: 223
Author: Brooks, Tim
Publisher: Pitch
Rating: 3 stars
Unlike Tim Brooks’ last venture into print, with The Batmaker of Copenhagen, there is no true story on which The Englishman is based so this one has to come under the heading of cricket fiction, a genre of the game’s literature that I have to confess to not generally having a great deal of time for.
Not unexpectedly therefore after the first couple of chapters of The Englishman my thoughts were dominated by two things, firstly how I was ever going to get through it, and secondly even if I managed that what could I say about the book that was positive. I did however stick at it, and at the point at which the book’s central character, Albert Vyvan, enlisted in the Army in 1914 I realised that the book was going in a different direction to that which I had expected it to take.
Having thus far forced myself to read a single chapter every couple of days I returned to the beginning, reread the initial chapters and then spent a Sunday that I had been hoping would involve watching Lancashire defeat Northamptonshire in the Metro Bank Cup finishing the book in one sitting, glad of having something pleasurable to do as that game slowly but inexorably slipped away from the Red Rose.
Beyond the advice not to give up too soon it is however quite tricky to review a book like this as the last thing I would want to do is give away the unexpected plot twist that unfolds over the last few chapters. Suffice it to say that Vyvan was an outstanding young cricketer and in that last summer before the Great War the then young Oxford undergraduate seemed destined to go far in the game.
As it was the gifted Vyvan, along with many others, answered the call to arms and joined the army, soon finding himself engaged in the thick of the needless slaughter that went on for so long as the deadlock on the Western Front ground on before, eventually, his involvement in the conflict ended when he was ordered, with five others, to carry out what proved to be a hopeless assignment.
In truth there isn’t a great deal of cricket in the story, which is all the better for that. There is an entirely credible account of the game against I Zingari which, as a result his century, had Vyvan’s name on the lips of those who knew the game in 1914, and something similar in the closing chapters. In addition there are cameo appearances cleverly worked into the tale for CB Fry, long time MCC secretary Francis Lacey and the Hampshire stalwart Phil Mead.
For anyone interested in the era in which it is set and who enjoys a good story I have to say The Englishman is a most enjoyable read, as long as you give it a chance!
Leave a comment