Slipless in Settle is a sentimental journey around club cricket in the north of England, a world far removed from the cliched lengthening-shadows-on-the-village-green image of the summer game. This is hardcore cricket played in former pit villages and mill towns. Winner of the 2011 MCC Cricket Book of the Year, it is about the little clubs that have, down the years, produced some of the greatest players Britain has ever seen, and at one time spent a fortune on importing the biggest names in the international game to boost their battle for local supremacy. Slipless in Settle is a warm, affectionate and outrageously funny sporting odyssey in which Andrew Flintoff and Learie Constantine rub shoulders with Asbo-tag-wearing all-rounders, there's hot-pot pie and mushy peas at the tea bar, two types of mild in the clubhouse, and a batsman is banned for a month for wearing a fireman's helmet when going out to face Joel Garner . . .

Formed in 1875, Somerset County Cricket Club had a long history of winning nothing when Brian Rose took on the captaincy in 1978. Yet in his six years at the helm they won five trophies and came close to winning several more. With only two further successes since then, those gloriously entertaining summers of Rose’s men – Botham, Richards, Garner, Roebuck, Marks and Denning – remain unrivalled as the Golden Age of Somerset Cricket. Here in 'Rosey' Brian Rose tells the inside story of those years: from his apprenticeship under the extraordinary Brian Close to the sad and acrimonious break-up of the side. Reading his account of it all, it is not hard to understand how his quiet captaincy held together so many strong personalities. Both then and as Director of Cricket in the 2000s, he has been at the heart of so much of what is best about Somerset cricket.

David Mitchell's connection with cricket began when his grandad took him to Bradford in 1961 to watch Yorkshire play the Australians. It was the start of a lifelong passion for the game. Many hours were devoted to helping in the scorebox, playing Owzthat and listening to Test Match Special. `From Snicket to Wicket' is a personal, nostalgic and whimsical view of a game once played by white-clad players with a red ball. Now it is the opposite.

The Ashes may be the longest and fiercest sporting soap opera the world has known. The anticipation is always intense, expectations are high and, for England fans, disappointment is almost inevitable, as we usually lose. But it's a drug we can never kick. How have we got into this state? Can we ever break free? Marcus Berkmann knows he can't and has stopped even trying. ASHES TO ASHES is the first emotional history of the contest, shamelessly eschewing balance and objectivity to give the punter's view of every series since 1972. This new edition updates the tale to the victorious 2009 series, while remaining brutally realistic about our chances in 2010 and beyond . . .