Following On: A Memoir of Teenage Obsession and Terrible Cricket - Softcover

John, Emma

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1472916891 ISBN 13: 9781472916891

Publisher: Wisden, 2017

Synopsis

Its one thing to be 14 years old and a loser. Its one thing to be the class swot, and hopelessly infatuated with someone who doesnt 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, while everyone else was learning Oasis lyrics and crushing on Kate Moss or Keanu, Emma John was obsessing over the England cricket team. She spent her free time making posters of the players she adored. She spent her pocket money on Panini stickers of them, and followed their progress with a single-mindedness that bordered on the psychopathic. The primary object of her affection: Michael Atherton, a boyishly handsome captain who promised to lead his young troops to glory. But what followed was one of the worst sporting streaks of all time a decade of frustration, dismay and comically bungling performances 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?

About this title

Review:

Deftly comic, wonderfully true, for anyone who has ever thought that England, chasing 6 in the fourth innings, just might do it. --Gideon Haigh

A real treat of a book, that will gladden the hearts of any cricket lover over 25, and broaden the horizons of anyone under. --All Out Cricket

A witty, wry memoir the comparisons to Nick Hornbys Fever Pitch are justified Independent i A gloriously funny yet poignant memoir --The Guardian

Book Description:

1993 saw the start of the England cricket team's worst ever streak. It was also - inexplicably - the moment Emma John fell utterly in love with them.

About this edition

• Publisher: Wisden
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1472916891
• ISBN 13: 9781472916891
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272