This July sees the publication of The Great Romantic, a new biography by Duncan Hamilton of the greatest cricket writer of all time, indeed the man who invented modern cricket writing as we know it: Neville Cardus. Cardus was for many years cricket correspondent of the (then Manchester) Guardian, but wrote for a host of other publications including Wisden. Before him, cricket writing meant rather drybones match reports full of statistics and jargon. Cardus wrote about the event: the sylvan ground, the emotion of watching a great batsman like Victor Trumper in full flow. For everyone who wants to sample his finest writings, Safe Haven now publishes a new volume of Cardus's best cricket writings. Here is Cardus on Don Bradman, Victor Trumper, Denis Compton and Richie Benaud, at Roses matches and the arcadian cricket festival at Dover beneath Shakespeare Cliff, seeing the Australians defeated at Eastbourne - and of course at the home of cricket, Lord's. A handsome small hardback with retro cover illustration, here is a book for every lover of fine writing on the Summer Game.

Autobiography was first published in 1947 and was described by J. B. Priestley as 'one of the best pieces of writing that ever found a way to our Book Society. He is a writer who has learned how to write and the result is glorious.' Sir Neville Cardus is best remembered as a writer on both cricket and music and during his lifetime achieved an unparalleled reputation as one of England's greatest journalists on these two very different subjects. Born in Rusholme in Manchester Cardus carved out an international reputation for himself by his own ability, efforts and imagination and created, as his biographer Christopher Brookes put it, 'a beguiling personal legend in the course of a career which extended over fifty years.' 'This is a very, very good book. Cricket and music - how he makes both these worlds pulsate, life comic as well as life magnificent.' Robert Lynd 'A superb work by a master of English.' Wilfred Pickles

Neville Cardus watched and chronicled cricket for over fifty years and no other writer has so understood (and was equipped to explore) the peculiar magic of this most English of games. His writing span cricket's changes, from the 1920's when it was run by amateurs, to the 1950's when the professionals took over. In this collection of writings (many previously unpublished in book form) we see how cricket reflected the atmosphere and spirit of each age, from the gusto left over from the Edwardian era, to a less romantic age. The Cardus style - whether romantic or satirical, laudatory or condemning - remains a joy to read while the criticisms he levelled at eras long gone remain just as relevant to the game as it is played today. Neville Cardus was Britain's greatest sports writer, his reports for 'The Guardian' made sports journalism a source of vivid description and criticism rather than a purely factual account. Every sports writer since has been influenced by him, whether consciously or not.

Cardus in the Covers is a companion volume to Neville Cardus's Cardus on Cricket and draws on his writing from 1920 into the 1950's and, even, the 1960's. Cardus celebrates many of the greatest cricketers to play the game, Len Hutton and Denis Compton to Richie Benaud and Gary Sobers. The collection contains Neville Cardus's reportage of the Coronation Test series of 1953, the last test matches that he fully reported on. It spans the full range of his cricket writing and demonstrates the mature flowering of one of the great writing stylists of the twentieth-century. These remarkable essays show how Cardus found art and richness of nature on the cricket field. Neville Cardus was Britain's greatest sports writer, his reports for 'The Guardian' made sports journalism a source of vivid description and criticism rather than a purely factual account. Every sports writer since has been influenced by him, whether consciously or not.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.