A Lot of Hard Yakka (Paperback)

You won't read a better inside story of cricket and the men who play it for a living. Vigorous, funny and full of insight from a gifted observer. It was a book waiting to be written and Simon Hughes has done it. Terrific. A devastating account of English cricket and its shortcomings... The book describes the shocking lack of ambition, dedication, coaching and leadership in English cricket. A brilliant commentary on the life of a county cricketer. You will never read a better book about the bizarre circus known as county cricket ... a very funny, often outrageous book. Hughes may never have scaled the heights as a cricketer, but he has become a wonderful writer on the sport ... gaspingly candid ... One thing is clear from this book - he had a really good time. So will anyone sensible enough to read it. Sharp and funny ... his book sails neatly between self-glorification and self-pity and lays bare the real truth of the athlete: a dark life of angst and self-doubt lit by sudden piercing shafts of transcendent adequacy. May be the first cricketer's autobiography ever to tell it like it is, from dressing-room to bedroom ... Hughes is rivetingly unguarded. As life-lived-through-sport, it is pure Hornby ... The book that cricket needed.