Never before has the whole world of cricket been collected in one, really quite large volume.

Les Scott has collected a lifetime of anecdotes, records, quotes and cuttings to make The Essential Cricket Book. With a century of sections detailing everything from balls and slips to pavilions, umpires and teas; all the Test-playing nations, first-class counties as well as minor counties and clubs, plus universities; tournaments from the Ashes through the old John Player League to the Sheffield Shield (not to mention the KFC Twenty20 Big Bash); bizarre dismissals and of course LBWs, all the great games and characters of cricket are brought to life.

It's all here: the first player to wear a helmet, the first man to attempt a reverse sweep, the games when camels (or mackerels) stopped play, the batsmen given out 'absent, thought lost on the Tube' and 'retired, suffering from measles', or simply the last England bowler to take a wicket with the first ball of a Test Match.