Book Review: Following On by Emma John

Following On

by

Emma John

This book I found on a day trip to Birmingham back in March. My wife and I always have to pop into book shops when we walk past them and this book was in the staff recommendation section. Having been a fan of cricket since the age of 4 or 5 (It's a family thing) I had to pick this up. I don't read non fiction books that often but this one I was really looking forward to reading.

"A cracking memoir that brought back so many memories of summer's watching Test cricket"

Blurb:

Michael Atherton is haunting my dreams. He's been making the occasional cameo for a year now. But this week he's popping up most nights....

It's one thing to be 14 years old and a loser. It's one thing to be the class swot, and hopelessly infatuated with someone who doesn't know you exist. But what kind of teenager is besotted with an entire sports team - when the players are even bigger losers than she is.

In 1993 Emma John was obsessing over the England cricket team. But what followed was one of the worst sporting streaks of all time - a decade of frustration and dismay that made the England cricket team a byword for British failure.

Nearly a quarter of a century on, Emma John wants to know why she spent her teenage years defending such a bunch of no-hopers. She seeks out her childhood heroes with two questions: why did they never win? And why on earth did she love them so much?

Review:

Cricket. You either love it or hate it. The haters will tell you that it is boring, or nothing happens, or it takes too long to play. The lovers though will tell you nothing but love and passion for a sport that has been played well over a hundred years. Whilst today the sport has taken a massive step to increase it's popularity by concentrating on the short game, or one day cricket. T20 games are now so popular that league tournaments around the world bid to get the best players to play and millions of pounds are spent to do this. There are cricket tours and tournaments being played in every month of the year. World Cups of different format's are also played more often.  But back in 1993 cricket was played so much less. For us in the UK we had a summer of 5/6 test matches and a few one day internationals and then nothing for months till the England team went on a winter tour. TV was different back then also. The home matches in the summer were on the BBC and you could never watch the winter tours live on TV so you had to listen to them on the radio or check via teletext. nowadays you have live cricket on TV from all around the world all year round. Sky Sports even have there own Sky Sports Cricket channel.

This book took my interest for a few reasons. One, I also like Emma loved watching the England games back then even if we were not that good. And two, Emma is only one year older than me so her memories and stories will be very similar to mine.

This book was brilliant, I loved it. It brought back so many memories for me from watching test cricket in the summer as a child. I may not have obsessed as much as to cut out articles from the press for my wall (although I did have football posters of my favourite Leicester City players) but when I was out playing cricket with my friends we would all pretend to be our favourite players different for batting and bowling. Depending on who we were playing that summer we would sometimes pretend to be them... Well they were better than us. Two of my all time favourite players are Curtly Ambrose the West Indian pace bowler and Shane Warne the Australian leg spinner. I have been very lucky to have seen both of these players play on a few occasions and I have such fond memories of this. Even though they were playing against England they were just so good you had to admire them.

Emma wrote with true honesty about her life as a teenager and her relationships with family and friends. Cricket was her thing and brought her great joy. The stories were funny and sometimes deep. I also love the fact it was a way of bonding with her mother growing up and not her father who loathed the sport. Emma classed herself as a loser, but for me and my cricket obsessed friends we would have classed her as a rock star.

As part of the book, Emma got to meet a lot of her heroes to interview including Mark Ramprakash, Jack Russell, Phil Tufnell and her one true love Michael Atherton. This I found really fascinating, majority of these players now work in the media covering the sport, but it was great to hear stories from them about playing cricket for England in the 90's. Some of the stories about going on winter tours made me laugh out loud but also made me think how on earth did some of these people (Phil Tufnell) play cricket after drinking so much the night before a game. 

Test Match Cricket has always been and always will be my favourite form of the game. Don't get me wrong, I do love 50 over cricket and T20 games but for me, the 5 day game is where it's at. The mental strength that players have to give 100% for is incredible, unlike most sports stars who play 2/3 hours at a time. I love the fact that you could be losing a game but with just 1 wicket the tides can turn in your favour as it is a battle till the end.

If you are a fan of cricket you will absolutely love this book, you must give it a go. I even think if cricket is not quite your thing but you love sport and follow a team you will enjoy this memoir of supporting a sports team.

Massive thanks goes to Emma John for the trip down memory lane.

Speak soon,

CBailey31