A Breathless Hush

This volume is a treasury of the finest verse written down through the centuries in celebration of the game of cricket. From Newbolt's classic refrain reflected in the book's title to a specially commissioned work by Andrew Motion, the Poet Laureate, A Breathless Hush... contains a variety of poems, rhymes and songs that cover almost 300 years from cricket's infancy to the present day. Including odes and epics, sonnets, limericks, high verse, low doggerel, works comic and serious, reflective, hortatory or simply in love with a beautiful game, the collection embraces a range of talents from the famous to the obscure, and the old to the contemporary. Thus, in addition to the contributions made to the cricketing canon by numerous Poet Laureates, the editors have gathered offerings from many distinguished modern poets, including Simon Armitage, Wendy Cope and Simon Rae. Among several pieces reproduced here for the first time is Sir Tim Rice's libretto for the musical Cricket, which was commissioned by Prince Edward for the Queen's sixtieth birthday in 1986. Encompassing the serious, the satirical, the earnest and the exuberant, this volume is a worthy addition to the bookshelves of lovers of cricket and poetry of all ages.

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