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Cricket Country: The Game and the Dream
- GenresNonfiction
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1945
About the author
Edmund Blunden
259 books21 followersAuthor, critic, and poet (the latter which for which he is most well known) Edmund Charles Blunden was born in London, and educated at The Queen's College at Oxford. In 1915 he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant with the Royal Sussex Regiment which he served with through the end of the war. He saw heavy action on the Western Front at both Ypres and the Somme, and was awarded the Military Cross. Miraculously he was never severely injured.
Following the war he served as Professor of English at the University of Tokyo from 1924-1927. He returned to England as magazine editor, and in 1931 he became a tutor at Oxford University where his writing career flourished. Post Second World War he became Professor of English Literature in Hong Kong.
He succeeded fellow Great War poet Robert Graves as Oxford Professor of Poetry, but lecturing proved to be a strain and he resigned after two years. His remaining years were spent in Suffolk, where he died in 1974.
He remained good friends with fellow poet Siegfried Sassoon, and during his career edited some of the first editions of Wilfred Owen and Ivor Gurney's poetry contributing to their memory. He is commemorated on a plaque in Westminster Abbey along with 15 other poets of the First World War.
Following the war he served as Professor of English at the University of Tokyo from 1924-1927. He returned to England as magazine editor, and in 1931 he became a tutor at Oxford University where his writing career flourished. Post Second World War he became Professor of English Literature in Hong Kong.
He succeeded fellow Great War poet Robert Graves as Oxford Professor of Poetry, but lecturing proved to be a strain and he resigned after two years. His remaining years were spent in Suffolk, where he died in 1974.
He remained good friends with fellow poet Siegfried Sassoon, and during his career edited some of the first editions of Wilfred Owen and Ivor Gurney's poetry contributing to their memory. He is commemorated on a plaque in Westminster Abbey along with 15 other poets of the First World War.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 19, 2026
I read a beautiful essay on cricket in my school English textbook. It was a beautiful ode to the game of cricket. It had a beautiful description of the English cricketing legend, Frank Woolley. It was excerpted from the book 'Cricket Country' by Edmund Blunden. I've wanted to read the book since then, but unfortunately it was out of print, and old copies were hard to find. Even in the era of the internet, it was hard to find it in Gutenberg or other such websites. Recently, I thought I'll search for it again and I was very happy when I saw an online copy. I got it and read it during the past few days.
First on how I got this copy of the book. 'Cricket Country' was first published in 1944. So during those days, India was a British colony. So it appears that the British Viceroy had got a copy of the book for his library. When India became independent in 1947, the Viceroy's library passed on to the Indian President. Sometime back, either the President or his aides decided that they should digitize the works from the library and offer it online to the general public. I don't know which good samaritan did that, but I'm glad that he / she did that, because now I've been able to get my hands on a copy of this book and I got to read it now. Sometimes good things happen inside a government office.
'Cricket Country' is Edmund Blunden's beautiful love letter to cricket. In the book, Blunden focuses more on village cricket and shares many charming anecdotes of unknown cricket heroes who were farmers or blacksmiths or in other professions and who came to the cricket field during the weekend and revealed another side of them, that of a cricketer. Blunden describes how people from different social classes played together during a game of cricket and how it was very English and how it was very fascinating. In the second part of the book, Blunden digresses into poetry and art and architecture and talks about other sport. Sometimes he puts these in a cricketing context, but other times he just digresses away from the main theme.
The book is written in an old-fashioned style which was popular once upon a time, in which things are described in a roundabout way, things are sometimes implied rather than described directly. It is beautiful to read if you read the book slowly, when you can see everything coming together and the book unfurls its glorious beauty. But if you try to push or to accelerate your reading pace, it will be hard to enjoy the book. I read the first part of the book slowly and loved it, but tried rushing during the second part and it was hard to read. Because we are used to things being described directly in a straightforward way today, years of reading like this has made my mind lazy and so reading this book was challenging. But it is rewarding if we persevere with it.
I searched for the page on Frank Woolley in the book, but I couldn't find it. I was very disappointed, because I was looking forward to reading it. This can mean only one thing – that excerpt was not from this book. Now I want to find out where that excerpt was taken from.
I discovered atleast two new writers through this book. The first was Mary Russell Mitford. She wrote a charming book called 'Our Village' in which she describes a cricket match in one of the chapters. This book was originally published between 1824 and 1832. So Mitford must have been one of the first writers who wrote about cricket. And she was probably the first woman writer to write about cricket. It is fascinating that she wrote this nearly 200 years back!
The second writer I discovered was John Nyren. He published 'The Young Cricketer's Tutor', and 'The Cricketers of My Time', both published in 1833. The first book seems to be a book on how to play cricket. The second seems to have portraits of cricketers of that time. The first ever cricket test match was played between England and Australia in 1877. So this book was published more than 40 years before that. So I've a feeling that I wouldn't know anything about any of the cricketers mentioned in this book. I'm very excited to discover more about these new-to-me cricketers from a bygone era.
I'm very happy and glad to have finally read Edmund Blunden's 'Cricket Country'. I never thought that I'll be able to find it. This is my second book by Blunden after 'Undertones of War'. I enjoyed reading them both, but I've to say this – and it is really hard for me to say this, because I love cricket and I hate war – 'Undertones of War' is the better book out of the two.
Have you read 'Cricket Country'? Do you like Edmund Blunden's writing?
First on how I got this copy of the book. 'Cricket Country' was first published in 1944. So during those days, India was a British colony. So it appears that the British Viceroy had got a copy of the book for his library. When India became independent in 1947, the Viceroy's library passed on to the Indian President. Sometime back, either the President or his aides decided that they should digitize the works from the library and offer it online to the general public. I don't know which good samaritan did that, but I'm glad that he / she did that, because now I've been able to get my hands on a copy of this book and I got to read it now. Sometimes good things happen inside a government office.
'Cricket Country' is Edmund Blunden's beautiful love letter to cricket. In the book, Blunden focuses more on village cricket and shares many charming anecdotes of unknown cricket heroes who were farmers or blacksmiths or in other professions and who came to the cricket field during the weekend and revealed another side of them, that of a cricketer. Blunden describes how people from different social classes played together during a game of cricket and how it was very English and how it was very fascinating. In the second part of the book, Blunden digresses into poetry and art and architecture and talks about other sport. Sometimes he puts these in a cricketing context, but other times he just digresses away from the main theme.
The book is written in an old-fashioned style which was popular once upon a time, in which things are described in a roundabout way, things are sometimes implied rather than described directly. It is beautiful to read if you read the book slowly, when you can see everything coming together and the book unfurls its glorious beauty. But if you try to push or to accelerate your reading pace, it will be hard to enjoy the book. I read the first part of the book slowly and loved it, but tried rushing during the second part and it was hard to read. Because we are used to things being described directly in a straightforward way today, years of reading like this has made my mind lazy and so reading this book was challenging. But it is rewarding if we persevere with it.
I searched for the page on Frank Woolley in the book, but I couldn't find it. I was very disappointed, because I was looking forward to reading it. This can mean only one thing – that excerpt was not from this book. Now I want to find out where that excerpt was taken from.
I discovered atleast two new writers through this book. The first was Mary Russell Mitford. She wrote a charming book called 'Our Village' in which she describes a cricket match in one of the chapters. This book was originally published between 1824 and 1832. So Mitford must have been one of the first writers who wrote about cricket. And she was probably the first woman writer to write about cricket. It is fascinating that she wrote this nearly 200 years back!
The second writer I discovered was John Nyren. He published 'The Young Cricketer's Tutor', and 'The Cricketers of My Time', both published in 1833. The first book seems to be a book on how to play cricket. The second seems to have portraits of cricketers of that time. The first ever cricket test match was played between England and Australia in 1877. So this book was published more than 40 years before that. So I've a feeling that I wouldn't know anything about any of the cricketers mentioned in this book. I'm very excited to discover more about these new-to-me cricketers from a bygone era.
I'm very happy and glad to have finally read Edmund Blunden's 'Cricket Country'. I never thought that I'll be able to find it. This is my second book by Blunden after 'Undertones of War'. I enjoyed reading them both, but I've to say this – and it is really hard for me to say this, because I love cricket and I hate war – 'Undertones of War' is the better book out of the two.
Have you read 'Cricket Country'? Do you like Edmund Blunden's writing?
July 15, 2022
Starts out as a wonderful love letter to cricket and a list idyll written during the trauma of WW2, but sets very distracted in the last third
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews