Cardus Uncovered

Cardus Uncovered-a revealing new biography

Sir Neville Cardus, cricket writer, music critic and conversationalist, had an amazing life: born in Manchester, the son of a prostitute and an unknown father, he made his name with the Manchester Guardian, eventually receiving a knighthood in 1967.

Using access to new genealogical sources, Australian as well as British newspapers, and recently available archive material, Christopher O'Brien's ground-breaking research is able to give us a new and different understanding of Neville Cardus's life and work.

We now know who Neville Cardus's father was and the life he led. We understand more about Cardus's early writing on cricket, together with some matches he played in. And we realise that what he told us about his first writing on serious music for the Daily Citizen and the Manchester Guardian is not always correct.

There are also new revelations about his later life, including the Test cricket he wrote about but didn't see; the years he spent in Australia; and the disagreement at the Manchester Guardian about whether he should continue to write on Test matches.

Neville Cardus was a great writer, but it wasn't all the truth. This book at last enables us to understand more about the truth of Neville Cardus's life and work, to distinguish the untruth and what Cardus liked to call the "higher truth".

320 pages
Available from: Christopher O'Brien, 64 Hillside Road, Beeston, Nottingham NG9 3AY.
Email order to: whitethorn.range@gmail.com
Price £12.50 inc postage — make cheques payable to Christopher O'Brien.