Two Beautifully Written Cricket Novels



The Village Cricket Tour

Traditional village cricket has a special place in the hearts of all true cricket lovers. Freshly mown grass. The smell of linseed oil. Cucumber sandwiches and sponge cake. Blue skies. The click-click of studded boots on the well-worn pavilion steps.

Once in a lifetime a book is written which truly captures not only the soul and spirit of the game but also the essential, though often accidental, comedy of amateur village cricket.

Vernon Coleman's novel is just such a book. It tells the story of a team of amateur cricketers who spend two weeks of their summer holidays on tour in the West Country. It proves to be a most eventful fortnight full of mishaps and adventures as the team play their way around the coastline of Devon and Cornwall.

The reviewers share our enthusiasm for The Village Cricket Tour.

"I enjoyed it immensely. He has written a book that will entertain, amuse and warm the cockles of tired old hearts."
(Peter Tinniswood, Punch)

"If anyone ever manages to bottle the essence of village cricket he will quickly scale the dizzy heights of personal fortune. In the meantime, we read and write about it in the pursuit of understanding. Seminal reading should now embrace Vernon Coleman's latest offering, a whimsical piece about the peregrinations of a village team on its summer tour...all the characters are here woven together by a raft of anecdotes and reminiscences and a travelogue of some of the most picturesque cricketing spots in the South West."
(The Cricketer)

"It is the funniest book about cricket that I have ever read. In fact it is the funniest book I have read since Three Men In A Boat." (Chronicle & Echo)

"His powers of observation combine with his penchant for brilliant word pictures to create a most delightful book that will appeal to all those who appreciate humour and sharp characterisation."
(The Sunday Independent)


If you would like to purchase The Village Cricket Tour (published in hardback) then send a cheque or postal order for £12.99 (plus £1.00 for postage and packing) to: Publishing House Trinity Place, Barnstaple, Devon EX32 9HG, UK. Please make the cheque/postal order payable to Publishing House.
If you would like to order by phone using your credit card, please call our orderline on 01271 328892 (+44 1271 328892). Or you may fax your credit card order to 01271 328768 (+44 1271 328768).
Alternatively, you can purchase this book from our online bookshop.





Around The Wicket

All cricket lovers know that it is almost compulsory for players of professional cricket to write diaries detailing their adventures on and off the field. Often these literary offerings seem little more than self-congratulatory advertisements designed, on the one hand, to describe in nauseating and extensive detail the cricketer's talent, natural abilities and, on the other, his misfortune at having to play his professional cricket at a time when his county and national side were managed by incompetents whose sole purpose in life was to find excuses to leave him our of their sides.

In total contrast, Vernon Coleman believes that the very best cricket is played at local level, and so he decided to pen his diary as a tribute to the glories and glitches of village and town cricket. This book follows one traditional village team throughout a year's cricketing activity (on and off the field).

"(This) new cricket book will bowl you over! A book to be savoured over and over again!"
(The Guardian)

"It's a non-stop comic book, eminently easy to read. The village cricket match will never be the same again after you've read this."
(The Chester Chronicle)


If you would like to purchase Around The Wicket(published in paperback) then send a cheque or postal order for £9.99 (plus £1.00 for postage and packing) to: Publishing House Trinity Place, Barnstaple, Devon EX32 9HG, UK. Please make the cheque/postal order payable to Publishing House.
If you would like to order by phone using your credit card, please call our orderline on 01271 328892 (+44 1271 328892). Or you may fax your credit card order to 01271 328768 (+44 1271 328768).
Alternatively, you can purchase this book from our online bookshop.


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