All these books were of great use while writing Fire in Babylon, but I want to draw attention to two in particular: David Tossell’s Grovel! on the 1976 series in England and The Cricket War by Gideon Haigh. Both authors deserve the thanks of readers of cricket books everywhere for their industry, insight and authority.
Arlott, John, John Arlott’s Book of Cricketers (Lutterworth Press, 1979)
Bradman to Chappell (Australian Broadcasting Commission Books, 1976)
Babb, Colin, They Gave the Crowd Plenty Fun (Hansib, 2012)
Barker, J. S., Summer Spectacular (The Sportsman’s Book Club, 1965)
Beckett, Andy, When the Lights Went Out: What Really Happened to Britain in the Seventies (Faber and Faber, 2009)
Beckles, Hilary McD. (ed.), A Spirit of Dominance: Cricket and Nationalism in the West Indies (Canoe Press, 1999)
——, The Development of West Indies Cricket Volume 1 (Pluto Press, 1999)
——, The Development of West Indies Cricket Volume 2 (Pluto Press, 1999)
Beckles, Hilary McD. and Stoddart, Brian (eds), Liberation Cricket: West Indies Cricket Culture (Manchester University Press, 1995)
Bell, Carl, A Complete Statistical Record of West Indian Test Cricketers (MRC, 1994)
Van der Bijl, Vintcent, Cricket in the Shadows (Shuter and Shooter, 1985)
Birbalsingh, Frank, Indo-Westindian Cricket (Hansib, 1987)
——, The Rise of Westindian Cricket (Hansib, 1997)
Birley, Derek, A Social History of English Cricket (Aurum, 2000)
——, The Willow Wand (Aurum, 2013)
Booth, Douglas, The Race Game: Sport and Politics in South Africa (Cass, 1998)
Bose, Mihir, A History of Indian Cricket (André Deutsch, 2002)
——, Sporting Colours (Robson, 1993)
Braithwaite, E. R., Honorary White (New English Library, 1977)
Brathwaite, Kamau, The Arrivants (Oxford University Press, 1981)
Brearley, Mike, The Art of Captaincy (Channel Four Books, 2001)
Brearley, Mike and Doust, Dudley, The Ashes Retained (Hodder and Stoughton, 1979)
Brookes, Christopher, His Own Man – The Life of Neville Cardus (Methuen, 1985)
Cardus, Neville, Second Innings (Collins, 1950)
Caro, Andrew, With a Straight Bat (The Sales Machine Ltd, 1979)
Cashman, Richard, ’Ave a Go, Yer Mug! (Collins, 1984)
Chalke, Stephen, Micky Stewart and the Changing Face of Cricket (Fairfield Books, 2012)
——, Tom Cartwright: The Flame Still Burns (Fairfield Books, 2007)
Chappell, Ian and Mallett, Ashley, Hitting Out: The Ian Chappell Story (Orion, 2005)
Conn, David, The Beautiful Game? Searching for the Soul of Football (Yellow Jersey Press, 2005)
Constantine, Learie, Colour Bar (Stanley Paul, 1954)
——, Cricket and I (Philip Allan, 1933)
——, Cricket in the Sun (Stanley Paul, 1946)
Corbett, Ted, Cricket on the Run (Stanley Paul, 1990)
Cornelissen, Scarlet and Grundlingh, Albert, Sport Past and Present in South Africa (Routledge, 2013)
Da Costa, Emilia Viotti, Crowns of Glory, Tears of Blood: The Demerara Slave Rebellion of 1823 (Oxford University Press, 1997)
Cozier, Tony, Clive Lloyd: Living for Cricket (Star, 1983)
—— (ed.), Wisden History of the Cricket World Cup (Wordsmith, 2006)
Dabydeen, David (ed.), Oxford Companion to Black British History (Oxford University Press, 2007)
Dalrymple, Henderson, 50 Great West Indian Test Cricketers (Hansib, 1983)
Desai, Ashwin, Blacks in Whites: A Century of Cricket Struggles in KwaZulu-Natal (University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2003)
Down, Michael, Is it Cricket? Power, Money and Politics in Cricket since 1945 (Queen Anne Press, 1985)
Eagar, Patrick, Test Decade: 1972–1982 (World’s Work, 1982)
Fingleton, Jack, Fingleton on Cricket (Collins, 1972)
——, Masters of Cricket (Heinemann, 1958)
Foot, David, Sunshine, Sixes and Cider (David and Charles, 1986)
——, Viv Richards (World’s Work, 1979)
Frindall, Bill, Frindall’s Score Book – Australia v West Indies 1975–76 (Lonsdale, 1976)
——, Frindall’s Score Book – England v West Indies 1976 (Lonsdale, 1976)
Frith, David, Bodyline Autopsy (Aurum, 2002)
——, Caught England, Bowled Australia (Eva Press, 1997)
——, Fast Men: Two Hundred Year Cavalcade of Speed Bowlers (Allen and Unwin, 1982)
——, Thommo: Story of Jeff Thomson (TBS, 1980)
Fryer, Peter, Aspects of British Black History (Index Books, 1993)
——, Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain (Pluto Press, 1984)
Garner, Joel, Big Bird: Flying High (Arthur Barker, 1988)
Gemmell, Jon, The Politics of South African Cricket (Routledge, 2004)
Genders, Roy, League Cricket in England (Werner Laurie, 1952)
Gibson, Alan, The Cricket Captains of England (The Pavilion Library, 1979)
Gilbert, Kevin, Because a White Man’ll Never Do it (Angus and Robertson, 2013)
——, Living Black (Penguin, 1978)
Gilroy, Paul, The Black Atlantic (Verso, 1993)
——, Black Britain (Saqi, 2007)
——, There Ain’t no Black in the Union Jack (Hutchinson, 1987)
Giuseppe, Undine, A Look at Learie Constantine (Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1974)
Goble, Ray and Sandiford, Keith A. P., 75 years of West Indies Cricket (Hansib, 2004)
Goodwin, Clayton, Caribbean Cricketers: From the Pioneers to Packer (Chambers, 1980)
——, West Indians at the Wicket (Macmillan, 1986)
Grant, Colin, I & I the Natural Mystics: Marley, Tosh and Wailer (Jonathan Cape, 2011)
Greenidge, Gordon, The Man in the Middle (David and Charles, 1980)
Greig, Tony, My Story (Hutchinson, 1980)
Guha, Ramachandra, A Corner of a Foreign Field (Picador, 2003)
—— (ed.), The Picador Book of Cricket (Picador, 2002)
Haigh, Gideon, The Cricket War (Text Publishing, 1993)
——, Silent Revolutions: Writings on Cricket History (Black Inc., 2006)
——, The Summer Game (ABC Books, 2006)
——, Uncertain Corridors: Writings on Modern Cricket (Simon and Schuster, 2014)
Holding, Michael, No Holding Back (Orion, 2010)
——, Whispering Death (André Deutsch, 1993)
James, C. L. R., Beyond a Boundary (Yellow Jersey Press, 2005)
——, Cricket (Allison and Busby, 1986)
Keating, Frank, Another Bloody Day in Paradise! (André Deutsch, 1981)
Kelly, Paul, The Dismissal: Australia’s Most Sensational Power Struggle (Angus and Robertson, 1983)
Kumar, Vijay P., Cricket Lovely Cricket (published privately, 2000)
Kynaston, David, Austerity Britain, 1945–1951: Tales of a New Jerusalem (Bloomsbury, 2007)
Lamming, George, The Emigrants (University of Michigan, 1994)
——, In the Castle of my Skin (Longman, 1979)
Lapping, Brian, Apartheid: A History (Paladin, 1988)
Lawrence, Bridgette, 100 Great Westindian Test Cricketers from Challenor to Richards (Hansib, 1987)
Lelyveld, Joseph, Move your Shadow (Abacus, 1989)
Levy, Andrea, Small Island (Picador, 2005)
Lillee, Dennis, The Art of Fast Bowling (Lutterworth Press, 1978)
——, Menace: The Autobiography (Headline, 2003)
Lister, Simon, Supercat: The Authorised Biography of Clive Lloyd (Fairfield Books, 2007)
Mahler, Jonathan, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning (Picador, 2007)
Mallett, Ashley, Thommo Speaks Out (Allen and Unwin, 2010)
Manley, Michael, A History of West Indies Cricket (André Deutsch, 1988)
Marsh, Rod, Gloves, Sweat and Tears (Penguin, 1984)
——, The Gloves of Irony (Lansdowne, 1982)
——, The Inside Edge (Lansdowne, 1984)
——, You’ll Keep (Hutchinson, 1975)
Marshall, Malcolm, Marshall Arts (Macdonald Queen Anne Press, 1987)
Mason, Peter, Learie Constantine (Macmillan Caribbean, 2007)
Mason, Tony (ed.), Sport in Britain: A Social History (Cambridge University Press, 2011)
May, Peter, The Rebel Tours (SportsBooks, 2009)
McDonald, Trevor, Clive Lloyd: The Authorised Biography (Granada, 1985)
——, Viv Richards: The Authorised Biography (Sphere, 1984)
McGregor, Craig, Profile of Australia (Hodder and Stoughton, 1966)
McKinstry, Leo, Boycs: The True Story (Partridge, 2000)
Mermelstein, David, The Anti-Apartheid Reader (Grove Press, 1987)
Morris, Mervyn and Carnegie, Jimmy, Lunchtime Medley (Ian Randle, 2008)
Moorhouse, Geoffrey, Lord’s (Hodder and Stoughton, 1983)
Murray, Bruce K. and Merrett, Christopher, Caught Behind: Race and Politics in Springbok Cricket (University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2004)
Naipaul, V. S., The Middle Passage (Vintage, 2002)
Nauright, John, Sport, Cultures and Identities in South Africa (Leicester University Press, 1998)
Newland, Courttia (ed.), IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain (Penguin, 2001)
Nicole, Christopher, West Indian Cricket (Phoenix, 1957)
Oborne, Peter, Basil D’Oliveira: Cricket and Conspiracy, the Untold Story (Little, Brown, 2004)
Odendaal, André, Cricket in Isolation: The Politics of Race and Cricket in South Africa (privately published, 1977)
Phillips, Mike and Phillips, Trevor, Windrush: The Irresistible Rise of Multi-Racial Britain (HarperCollins, 2009)
Pilkington, Edward, Beyond the Mother Country: West Indians and the Notting Hill White Riots (I. B. Tauris and Co., 1988)
Quarles, Benjamin, The Negro in the Making of America (Collier, 1969)
Rae, Simon, W. G. Grace: A Life (Faber and Faber, 1999)
Raman, Menaka et al., From There to Here: 16 True Tales of Immigration to Britain (Penguin, 2007)
Richards, Vivian, Hitting Across the Line: An Autobiography (Headline, 1991)
——, Sir Vivian: The Definitive Autobiography (Penguin, 2001)
Rickard, John, Australia: A Cultural History (Longman, 1996)
Ross, Alan, Through the Caribbean (The Pavilion Library, 1986)
Ross, Gordon, A History of West Indies Cricket (Arthur Barker, 1976)
St Clair, William, The Grand Slave Emporium (Profile, 2007)
Salewicz, Chris, Bob Marley: The Untold Story (Harper, 2010)
Savidge, Michele and McLellan, Alastair, Real Quick (Blandford, 1995)
Seecharan, Clem, From Ranji to Rohan: Cricket and Indian Identity in Colonial Guyana 1890s–1960s (Hansib, 2009)
——, Muscular Learning: Cricket and Education in the Making of the British West Indies at the End of the Nineteenth Century (Ian Randle, 2005)
——, Sweetening Bitter Sugar: Jock Campbell the Booker Reformer (Ian Randle, 2004)
Selvon, Sam, The Lonely Londoners (Penguin, 2006)
Sobers, Garfield, Cricket in the Sun (Arthur Barker, 1967)
——, My Autobiography (Headline, 2003)
Steen, Rob, Floodlights and Touchlines: A History of Spectator Sport, (Bloomsbury, 2014)
——, Desmond Haynes: Lion of Barbados (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1993)
Stoddart, Brian and Sandiford, Keith A. P. (eds), The Imperial Game: Cricket, Culture and Society (Manchester University Press, 1998)
Stollmeyer, Jeff, Everything Under the Sun (Stanley Paul, 1983)
Swanton, E. W., Sort of a Cricket Person (Collins, 1972)
Tennant, Ivo, Frank Worrell: A Biography (Lutterworth Press, 1987)
Thompson, Leonard, A History of South Africa (Yale University Press, 1996)
Tossell, David, Grovel! (Know the Score, 2007)
——, Tony Greig: A Reappraisal of English Cricket’s Most Controversial Captain (Pitch, 2011)
Underdown, David, Start of Play (Allen Lane, 2000)
Walcott, Clyde, Sixty Years on the Back Foot (Orion, 2000)
Walsh, Courtney, Heart of the Lion (Lancaster, 1999)
Warner, Pelham, Long Innings (Harrap, 1951)
West, Peter (ed.), Cricketers from the West Indies (Playfair, 1950)
Wild, Rosalind Eleanor, Black Was the Colour of our Fight. Black Power in Britain, 1955–1976 (PhD thesis, University of Sheffield, 2008)
Wilde, Simon, Letting Rip: Fast Bowling Threat from Lillee to Waqar (Gollancz, 1994)
Williams, Jack, Cricket and Race (Berg, 2001)
Wisden Anthology 1940–1963 (Macdonald Queen Anne Press, 1982)
Wisden Anthology 1963–1982 (Guild Publishing, 1986)
The Wisden Book of Cricket Records (Queen Anne Press, 1988)
The Wisden Book of Cricketers’ Lives (Macdonald Queen Anne Press, 1986)
The Wisden Book of Test Cricket Volume 1 (Headline, 2010)
The Wisden Book of Test Cricket Volume 2 (Headline, 2010)
The Wisden Book of Test Cricket Volume 3 (Headline, 2010)
Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack (various years)
Worrell, Frank, Cricket Punch (Rupa, 1959)
Wright, Graeme, Betrayal: The Struggle for Cricket’s Soul (Witherby, 1993)