Table of Contents

Foreword by Geoff Lawson. Introduction. Acknowledgements. THE BIRTH OF THE ASHES 1882-1911: Perfidious Albion; W.G. Grace - 'The Perpetual Schoolboy'; When Ivo Goes Back with the Urn; There Was an Old Man with a Beard; The Golden Age - or Was It?; Charles III and the Maharajah; Sydney Barnes - Class Warrior; The First Great Series. FROM BOSANQUET TO GREGORY - CRICKET'S ARMS RACE 1903-1929: The Googly - Cricket's Wrong'un; Slings and Arrows; Warwick Armstrong - New Grace or Disgrace?; The Board-Room Brawl; The Launch of 'The Big Ship'; Double-Quick; An Officer and a Gamesman; 'Pray God, No Professional Shall Captain England'; The Intemperance Society; Jealous Rivals. DON'S DELIGHT - THE BRADMAN ERA 1930-1948: Bradman's Summer of Summits; Douglas Jardine: Made in Scotland from Girders; 'I've Got It, He's Yellow!'; The Onslaught Begins; Evasive Action; The Battle of Adelaide; First Blood; The Cable War; The Most Hated Man in Australia; A Catholic Conspiracy?; Captain Bradman and the Mutineers; A Feud Renewed; The Ikin Catch; Miller and Lindwall - Aussies in Excelsis; The Morality of Bouncers; Bradman's Last Stand. IN SEARCH OF BRIGHTER CRICKET 1950-1970: Lord Hawke's Prayer Rejected; The Blocker and the Chucker; The Typhoon Blows in; Laker Superior; Benaud's Bent-Arm Army; And Then There Were None; Total Team Spirit; When Ted Met Fred; The Dreariest Decade; Defender of the Realm. REIGN OF FIRE 1970-1987: Street Fighting Men; Every Quick for Himself; Bottles and Beercans; The Spores of Wrath; The Killing Fields; The Ultimate Wang-er; Different Strokes; Different Folks; The Revolution Will Be Televised; Lambs to the Slaughter; A Great Ashes Romance; The Miracle of Headingley; Notoriouser and Notoriouser; Beefy's Last Bow. THE BAGGY GREEN MACHINE 1989-PRESENT: Captain Australia; Revenge of the Amateurs; David Gower's Flying Circus; The Ball of the Century; A Word in Your Ear; Captain Grumpy; Waugh's Aussies: Invincible or Unspeakable?; The Urn Returns; The Revengers' Tragicomedy; Oh, For Fred's Sake; The Dodgy Dossier; The Final Frontier. Index of Players. Picture Acknowledgements.

About the Author

Simon Briggs covers tennis and cricket for the Daily Telegraph. He grew up in Oxford, in a house full of academics, then studied history at Cambridge, but no-one has ever discovered which period. He lives in London.

Reviews

'A history of the Ashes with more spice than you will find in a curry-house kitchen' Daily Telegraph.
*Daily Telegraph*

'An entertaining, timely and irreverent trip through the history of the Ashes' Sunday Times.
*Sunday Times*

'Rollicking good fun' Observer.
*Observer*