The first of a series of (short!) reviews of sporting-fiction; today we look at the third of the Flashman Papers – and the cricketing-based genius of “Flashman’s Lady”!
Theoretically, this is typical “Flashy Fare”, with our (anti?) hero fighting his way past Borneo pirates, and eventually escaping the clutches of the evil Malagasy Queen Ranavalona – though Mrs Flashman does get to play more than her usual bit-part. However, the story is started by Flashman’s devilish fast-bowling, whilst representing a team skippered by Tom Brown, and taking the world’s earliest recorded hat-trick (and dismissing three of English cricket’s finest); this leads to a potential betting scandal on the back of a two-wicket one-a-side match played in the garden of a country house (surely Sky Sports Cricket channel could do something with that format? Or the ECB could use it as the pre-cursor to some 100 ball matches next year) – fictional cricket at its’ finest!
For this, and more cricketing fiction (and a raft of other cricket titles) head over to Cricket Books – it makes ideal holiday reading!
Whilst technology seems to march ever onward, and the world keeps moving inexorably forwards, there are times when taking a step back is the right thing to do. Not a regressive step mind you, but a brief return to a time when a two hour lunch was at least an hour too short; to a time when tennis was real (not lawn) and rackets was a game (rather than a graphite monstrosity used to impart mammoth amounts of topspin); and to a place with more wood cladding than Sherwood Forest (or a Scandinavian DIY furniture outlet) – and even further north!