Arlott: The Authorised Biography Allen, David Rayvern

John Arlott is widely regarded as the greatest cricket commentator who ever lived — a voice that turned Test matches into poetry, rain delays into philosophy, and boundary calls into art. But Arlott was far more than cricket. He was a poet, a wine connoisseur, a Hampshire police detective, a champion of racial justice (he publicly opposed the D'Oliveira affair and apartheid-era tours), and a man whose BBC broadcasts became the soundtrack of English summers for four decades. David Rayvern Allen's authorised biography draws on unprecedented access to Arlott's papers and interviews with those closest to him, revealing the complexities behind that honeyed Hampshire burr — the personal struggles, the political convictions, the love affairs, and the loneliness. Essential reading for cricket lovers, but also for anyone interested in mid-century British cultural life and the art of broadcasting itself.