Now I'm 62: The Diary of an Ageing Cricketer

Philip Stone's father played a last game of cricket at 62. "He wasn't fit," Stone's mother said. "He made a complete fool of himself." Now Stone himself has turned 62 - and he too is still playing cricket. "Am I making a fool of myself" he wonders. He captains a team in the Wiltshire League, thirty miles from his childhood home. His diary records the story of his summer, interwoven with memories of his years of growing up. On the surface this is a warm and witty book about the game's lower depths, but below that surface there is love and loss, youth and ageing - and some disturbing memories. Past and present blend together, creating a book that is sometimes funny, sometimes moving. Stephen Chalke is the author of several award-winning books on cricket's history, but in Now I'm 62 he has looked inward to write a work of some originality.