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Book Of The Year Award > 2011 > Slipless in Settle - A Slow Turn Around Northern Cricket
Harry Pearson, Little, Brown Book Group
Purchase on Amazon
 A columnist on The Guardian, Harry Pearson's previous sporting work has featured mainly football but here he ventures into territory mapped out by other writers from his generation. Fundamentally, it consists of revisiting places and events from childhood and adolescence and it entails journeys back to areas surrounding the author's birthplace to compare and contrast with modern living. In the hands of talented and witty writers like Stuart Maconie, it can work wonderfully and in the hands of Harry Pearson, there may just be a rival in the sporting field.
The book is subtitled 'A Slow Turn Around Northern Cricket' and as the journey is almost entirely by public transport to League grounds of various quality, accuracy is guaranteed in that description. Perhaps one of the strongest elements in the book comes from that combination of occasional transport. Harry Pearson tends to arrive at grounds after the scheduled start and of necessity, leave before the end of the game. This gives the genuine feeling that a casual onlooker has when coming across a cricket match. You may glean some of the names of the players from the scattered spectators, who may be relatives of young participants and then you may recognise the club professional from televised matches. Even if you only catch a fraction of detail of the players, the action will keep your attention and individual battles will focus the mind. The result is not as important as the atmosphere although the author commendably, does complete the picture by checking back later in the week, to give the final result of matches where he had to leave early.
But this is only half the appeal. The bizarre fellow-travellers on public transport, the search for a traditional Northern lunch which would send a weight-watcher into a state of raw panic and most of all, the history of the clubs visited and the players. Ah - the players. Not just the famous pros of yesteryear but the up and coming ones from today and the not so famous in world terms but those who live long in legends. Yes, that certainly means Cec Pepper and later, Roy Gilchrist. But it all begins with Learie Constantine and of course, Mrs. Jessop's false teeth (not Mrs. G.O Jessop, by the way) but a fellow-worker of the author, when the world was young and hotels had still-rooms to sit and chat in during an afternoon tea-break.
This book is a real 'slow-burner' as it gently draws the reader into a summer of cricket and history and pies and trains and markets and country buses and rain and much more. It is undoubtedly the surprise hit of the year and deserves to do well and hopefully, spawn some further writing. Immensely enjoyable and with the finest chapter headings seen in a long, long time. Potpie And Savage Ignorance, Two Klingons And A Gorilla and Bailing Out The Scorebox are just some of the intriguing titles that will repay investigation.
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