• A Lot of Hard Yakka by Simon Hughes
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A Lot of Hard Yakka

  • Author
    • Simon Hughes
£10.99
£10.99
Between 1980 and 1993, Simon Hughes was a regular on the county circuit, playing for Middlesex until 1991 before moving on to Durham at the end of his career. In that time, he played alongside some of the great characters in cricket: Mike Brearley, Mike Gatting, Phil Edmonds and Ian Botham. This is not an autobiography of a good county pro, but a look at the ups and downs, the lifestyle, the practical jokes and sheer hard yakka that make such a poorly paid, insecure job appeal to so many. Now a respected journalist and broadcaster, Simon Hughes has written a brilliant, amusing and wrily self-depracating book, packed with hilarious and embarrassing anecdotes about some of the greatest cricketers of the last 20 years.
  • Published: Apr 02 1998
  • Pages: 320
  • 198 x 128mm
  • ISBN: 9780747255161

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Press Reviews

  • Michael Parkinson
    You won't read a better inside story of cricket and the men who play it for a living. Vigorous, funny and full of insight from a gifted observer. It was a book waiting to be written and Simon Hughes has done it.
  • Harold Pinter
    Terrific.
  • Mike Brearley, Observer
    A devastating account of English cricket and its shortcomings... The book describes the shocking lack of ambition, dedication, coaching and leadership in English cricket.
  • Mike Selvey, Guardian
    A brilliant commentary on the life of a county cricketer.
  • Ian Wooldridge, Daily Mail
    You will never read a better book about the bizarre circus known as county cricket ... a very funny, often outrageous book.
  • Marcus Berkmann, Daily Telegraph
    Hughes may never have scaled the heights as a cricketer, but he has become a wonderful writer on the sport ... gaspingly candid ... One thing is clear from this book - he had a really good time. So will anyone sensible enough to read it.
  • Simon Barnes, The Times
    Sharp and funny ... his book sails neatly between self-glorification and self-pity and lays bare the real truth of the athlete: a dark life of angst and self-doubt lit by sudden piercing shafts of transcendent adequacy.
  • Tim de Lisle, Wisden Cricket Monthly
    May be the first cricketer's autobiography ever to tell it like it is, from dressing-room to bedroom ... Hughes is rivetingly unguarded.
  • Simon Wilde, The Times
    As life-lived-through-sport, it is pure Hornby ... The book that cricket needed.