Neville Cardus described how one majestic stroke-maker 'made music' and 'spread beauty' with his bat. Between two world wars, he became the laureate of cricket by doing the same with words. In The Great Romantic, award-winning author Duncan Hamilton demonstrates how Cardus changed sports journalism for ever. While popularising cricket - while appealing, in Cardus' words to people who 'didn't know a leg-break from the pavilion cat at Lord's'- he became a star in his own right with exquisite phrase-making, disdain for statistics and a penchant for literary and musical allusions. Among those who venerated Cardus were PG Wodehouse, John Arlott, Harold Pinter, JB Priestley and Don Bradman. However, behind the rhapsody in blue skies, green grass and colourful characters, this richly evocative biography finds that Cardus' mother was a prostitute, he never knew his father and he received negligible education. Infatuations with younger women ran parallel to a decidedly unromantic marriage. And, astonishingly, the supreme stylist's aversion to factual accuracy led to his reporting on matches he never attended. Yet Cardus also belied his impoverished origins to prosper in a second class-conscious profession, becoming a music critic of international renown. The Great Romantic uncovers the dark enigma within a golden age.

A century has always had a special resonance, in all walks of life, and none more so than in cricket. Scoring one hundred runs is the ultimate for a batsman. As former England captain Andrew Strauss admits, it's incredibly hard to do; for Ricky Ponting, it's a transformational moment in the career of a cricketer. Or in the words of Geoffrey Boycott, 'a century has its own magic'. In The Art of Centuries, Steve James applies his award-winning forensic insight to the very heart of batting. Through interviews with the leading run-scorers in cricket history and his own experiences, Steve discovers what mental and physical efforts are required to reach those magical three figures. Despite his own haul of 47 first-class tons, he himself felt at times that he was poorly equipped for the task. So working out how to score centuries is an art. And bowlers might not agree, but there really is no better feeling in cricket.

The Shorter Wisden is a compelling distillation of what's best in its bigger brother. Available from all major eBook retailers, Wisden's digital version includes the influential Notes by the Editor, all the front-of-book articles, reviews, obituaries and all England's Tests from the 2014 season.

This book provides a holistic view of the relationship between heritage and sport. It examines four types of sport heritage: tangible immovable sport heritage (sports venues, monuments and memorials, landscapes); tangible movable sport heritage (museums and halls of fame, events, living sport heritage); intangible sport heritage (intangibility of sport heritage, institutions, existential); and goods and services with a sport heritage component (tourism, marketing, management). It offers both theoretical and applied approaches to the heritage–sport relationship and intersects with many contemporary topics in heritage, sport, tourism, events and marketing. It will be useful to students and researchers in sport tourism, sport studies, heritage studies, sport history, museum studies and sports management.

Lost Histories of Indian Cricket studies the personalities and controversies that have shaped Indian cricket over the years and brings to life the intensity surrounding India's national game. It may be true that that cricket today arouses more passions in India than in any other cricket playing country in the world. Yet, when it comes to writing on the history of the game, Indians have been reticent and much of the past has been obscured and lost. Majumdar here recovers this history and restores it to its rightful place in India's rich sporting heritage.

The cricket festival - when one of the county cricket clubs takes a week or so of games out of its home ground to a club ground somewhere else in the county, and attracts a large and festive crowd to a bucolic arena fringed with white marquees, beer tents and deckchairs - is a declining phenomenon. This follow-up to 'Britain's Lost Cricket Grounds' visits 30 lost festival grounds from Bournemouth to Abergavenny, Weston-super-Mare to Harrogate, and talks to former players, ground staff, club secretaries and spectators to re-live the days when the world's finest players came to town for one week only, packed the beer tent and thrilled the crowds.

Is a famous queen of Britain really bured beneath platform 10 at King's Cross station in London? What is the telephone number of the National Theatre? what is the best place to eat in Worcester? Where is the National Bagpipe Museum? (Hint: not in Scotland) Was Pointius Pilate born in Pitlochry? The answers to these questions and literally thousands more are to be found in David Kemp's fascinating guidebook, The Pleasures and Treasures of Britain. Nowhere else will the discerning traveller find so much diverse and essential information about British culture gathered together in one volume. With the author as your witty and knowledgeable guide, take a tour through nearly fifty cities, from Penzance to Perth, from London to Cardiff and Belfast. Each city section begins with a concise, readable history and a guided walk around the town, planned to take in as many of the significant local sights as can comfortably be included. Next are exhaustive listings, including telephone numbers and addresses, of everything a culturally curious visitor might want to seek out: theatre, art galleries, museums, antique markets, antiquarian and other bookstores, restaurants, lcoal fairs and festivals and more. Finally, under the headings of Artistic Associations and Ephemera, each section concludes with an entertaining collection of local lore, gossip, legend and anecdote.