Richie Benaud’s Blue Suede Shoes
- Author David Kynaston and Harry Ricketts
- Narrator David Thorpe
- Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publish Date 23 May 2024
- Run Time 9 hours and 6 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Cricket.
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What to expect
Bloomsbury presents Richie Benaud’s Blue Suede Shoes by David Kynaston and Harry Ricketts, read by David Thorpe.
CHARLES TYRWHITT SPORTS BOOK AWARDS CRICKET BOOK OF THE YEAR
THE CRICKET WRITERS’ CLUB DEREK HODGSON BOOK OF THE YEAR
LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR PRIZE 2024
'This entertaining book is gripping reading for any cricket buff' Sunday Times
'An epic contest superbly retold . . . a fascinating slice of social history, it is a spellbinding read' Vic Marks
'You should go out and buy it now, because the book is brilliant’ Spectator
David Kynaston and Harry Ricketts relive the compelling story of a gripping Ashes-deciding Test match that heralded the dawn of a new era for English cricket.
The Ashes are on the line as England and Australia meet at Old Trafford in July 1961 for the fourth Test. For most of the match, England have their noses ahead – until a dramatic final day, of intensely fluctuating fortunes, as the tourists eventually storm to victory. In short, an Ashes classic, told here by David Kynaston and Harry Ricketts in vivid and immersive detail, recreating the sometimes agonising experience of millions of armchair viewers and listeners.
At the heart of Richie Benaud’s Blue Suede Shoes are two strikingly contrasting personalities: England’s captain, the Cambridge-educated, risk-averse, establishment-minded Peter May; and Australia’s captain, the charismatic, risk-taking, open-minded Benaud – a contrast not only between two individuals, but between two cricketing and indeed national cultures. Whereas Benaud and Australia symbolised a new, meritocratic era, May and England seemed, in what was still an amateur-dominated game, to look back to an old imperial legacy out of sync with the dawning Sixties.
The sharply observed final chapters take the story up to the present day. They relate the ‘after-lives’ of the match’s key participants, including Ted Dexter, Bill Lawry and Fred Trueman as well as May and Benaud; trace the continuing chequered relationship between English cricket and broader social change; and, after six more decades of fierce Ashes rivalry, wrestle with the perennial conundrum for all England supporters – why do the baggy green caps usually beat us?
CHARLES TYRWHITT SPORTS BOOK AWARDS CRICKET BOOK OF THE YEAR
THE CRICKET WRITERS’ CLUB DEREK HODGSON BOOK OF THE YEAR
LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR PRIZE 2024
'This entertaining book is gripping reading for any cricket buff' Sunday Times
'An epic contest superbly retold . . . a fascinating slice of social history, it is a spellbinding read' Vic Marks
'You should go out and buy it now, because the book is brilliant’ Spectator
David Kynaston and Harry Ricketts relive the compelling story of a gripping Ashes-deciding Test match that heralded the dawn of a new era for English cricket.
The Ashes are on the line as England and Australia meet at Old Trafford in July 1961 for the fourth Test. For most of the match, England have their noses ahead – until a dramatic final day, of intensely fluctuating fortunes, as the tourists eventually storm to victory. In short, an Ashes classic, told here by David Kynaston and Harry Ricketts in vivid and immersive detail, recreating the sometimes agonising experience of millions of armchair viewers and listeners.
At the heart of Richie Benaud’s Blue Suede Shoes are two strikingly contrasting personalities: England’s captain, the Cambridge-educated, risk-averse, establishment-minded Peter May; and Australia’s captain, the charismatic, risk-taking, open-minded Benaud – a contrast not only between two individuals, but between two cricketing and indeed national cultures. Whereas Benaud and Australia symbolised a new, meritocratic era, May and England seemed, in what was still an amateur-dominated game, to look back to an old imperial legacy out of sync with the dawning Sixties.
The sharply observed final chapters take the story up to the present day. They relate the ‘after-lives’ of the match’s key participants, including Ted Dexter, Bill Lawry and Fred Trueman as well as May and Benaud; trace the continuing chequered relationship between English cricket and broader social change; and, after six more decades of fierce Ashes rivalry, wrestle with the perennial conundrum for all England supporters – why do the baggy green caps usually beat us?
Critics Review
The Old Trafford Ashes Test of 1961 has everything - except a reverse lap, an epic contest superbly retold by David Kynaston and Harry Ricketts. In their expert hands, the match also becomes a trigger for a fascinating slice of social history, epitomised by the contrasting outlooks of the two captains, Peter May and Richie Benaud in his blue suede shoes. It is a spellbinding read even though most of us know the outcome of the match and an essential text for those of us who wonder why the Aussies beat us so often
A scrupulous and subtle evocation of one's of cricket's forgotten classics: the Ashes of 1961
It will fascinate the keenest cricket followers, taking us back with shrewd insight to a famous Ashes Test match, but it is simultaneously an account of the social issues of the time, which are illuminated in numerous, often subtle ways throughout
This wonderful book recreates a famous Ashes Test played more than sixty years ago, making it as vivid and enjoyable to the reader as if they were watching it enacted live on television. The research is extraordinarily rich, the prose utterly exquisite. The central characters in the story, whether Australian or English, players, commentators or administrators, are sketched with deftness and authority. And the narrative of the cricket itself is both deeply informative and hugely enjoyable. Richie Benaud’s Blue Suede Shoes is destined to become a classic of sporting literature
A highly enjoyable account with helpful historical context of one of the great Ashes test matches. The authors' evocation of the summer of 1961 paint the picture exactly as this superannuated 12-year-old remembers it as he sat on the grass behind the boundary rope, absorbed in the pendulum swings of the cricketing drama being played out in front of him
Rekindled fantastic memories of a historic afternoon at Old Trafford…the detail offered by the authors revealed plenty of stories forgotten or maybe unknown to me. A comprehensive and interesting read
David Kynaston is amazing: instead of sleeping between each magnum opus, he turns out a splendid jeu d’esprit. He and Ricketts have masterfully re-created the long-ago rivalry of the conformist Englishman and the inventive Aussie, and guess who wins?
Compelling . . . The authors elegantly capture the tensions of that final day, dexterously putting the game and its players in a historical context and drawing rich profiles of the individuals involved
Patient and scholarly storytelling, alert to nuance and eager for detail, captures something of the hypnotic, accumulating rhythm of the full five-day game in all its pregnancy
This entertaining new book . . . [is] eminently readable. Each day’s play is meticulously described, session by session, and is gripping reading for any cricket buff
David Kynaston and Harry Ricketts’s beautifully written book is a minor classic
I recommend Richie Benaud’s Blue Suede Shoes . . . there are so many contemporary echoes. David Kynaston and Harry Ricketts lay bare English cricket’s public school elitism, juxtaposing the stiff home captain Peter May with the charismatic Benaud
An insightful account of the Australian cricket team’s victory over England in the1961 Ashes competition. Australia’s captain Richie Benaud, a small-town boy who paid for his team’s drinks on the boat journey across the world, outfoxed his English counterpart, Cambridge graduate Peter May
Highly recommended . . . the authors are both exceptional writers, diligent researchers and above all lovers of our great game
What makes the book so compelling is how Kynaston and Ricketts interweave the wider social changes already starting to take place with a blow by blow account of the match, providing not just an in-depth portrait of a memorable game but also a valuable slice of social history
Doubly successful, as both cricket book and social history . . . All derives from the life of the match, brilliantly retrieved from the aspic of the records
A lovely new book . . . Richie Benaud’s Blue Suede Shoes [is] a tale of one great 1961 Ashes match and the wider social and political revolution it encapsulated
Richie Benaud’s Blue Suede Shoes . . . If that title grabs you, you should go out and buy it now, because the book is brilliant . . . The bulk of the book, though, is dedicated to a single Ashes Test . . . these chapters are sparkling. The authors say they have been wanting to write this book since they met at school in 1968; it is to our imperishable benefit that they have finally got round to it
A masterful retelling . . . This recently published book about an “Ashes classic’’ will itself become a classic in the genre of cricket writing
The prose throbs for the passion the authors still feel for this famously electrifying series
This is a book that passes any number of tests for a cricket book to be successful… It is literate, accurate, poses many questions…In short, everything works. Not only is this the best book by some margin that has crossed my desk this year, but if it doesn’t mop up all the awards going… it will have to be a remarkable book to put this one in second place. An essential purchase that will be read and reread over the years
It’s another book that does social history as well as it does the cricket – there is some mystery woven in to the game’s fabric that allows it to reflect these wider themes
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