Historian Duncan Stone chats with host Mayank about this recent book - Different Class: The Untold Story of English Cricket. This book was shortlisted for the Cricket Writers Club 'Book of the Year' 2022 and the Sunday Times Sports Book Awards 'Cricket Book of the Year' 2023.
“A modern-day John Arlott: uncomfortable but indispensable reading for those who love cricket but may so far have avoided Duncan Stone’s vital home truths about the game.” - Peter Hain, former chairman of the Stop the Seventy Tour campaign and Labour Peer
"In this fascinating journey through history, Duncan Stone goes back to the working-class roots of the game, lifts the lid on the myths that cricket lives by, and explains why it’s impossible not to love it." - Tony Collins, author of Rugby League: A People's History
"A warm, accessible but thorough-going account of how cricket and class are intertwined in England. Full of personal wit and charm but also rigor and drive." - Stuart Maconie
"At a time when the ECB seems intent on killing Test cricket, by commodifying it in search of quick profits, this book is a gentle reminder of the true ethos and variable pace of the game, etched in the memories of all who have played it at village or club level." - Guy Standing, author of The Precariat: The True Dangerous Class
"Different Class is in that special category of books — not just lucid and cogent but necessary and invaluable." - Gideon Haigh, author of The Cricket War: The Inside Story of Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket
Duncan Stone is a historian long interested in the social and cultural machinations of sport, the concept and application of amateurism and who, exactly, gets to define the form, function and meaning of sport. He has worked as a forensic photographer, DJ and club promoter, builder, local government officer and lecturer at the University of Huddersfield and was previously a visiting researcher at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia.
