C. K. Nayudu and Sachin Tendulkar naturally figure in this captivating history of cricket in India, but so too—in arresting and unexpected ways—do Mahatma Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. The Indian careers of those great English cricketers Lord Harris and D. R. Jardine provide a window into the operations of Empire, while the extraordinary life of India's first great slow bowler, Palwankar Baloo, introduces the still-unfinished struggle against caste discrimination. Later chapters explore the competition between Hindu and Muslim cricketers in colonial India and the extraordinary passions now provoked when India plays Pakistan. An important, pioneering work, this is also a beautifully-written meditation on the ramifications of sport in society at large, and on how sport can influence both social and political history.

"Represented here are poems dashed off in the full awfulness of the battlefield, as well as those honed with the terrible benefit of hindsight. And there are poems from an earlier age whose themes and aching beauty exactly matched the mood of a nation as an entire generation was lost to war. Here also are poems inspired by the experience of countless mothers, wives, sweethearts, sisters, and daughters left behind ... The poems are counterpointed by painstakingly restored photographic images-- many seen here for the first time-- which show relentlessly cheerful faces, smiling in the face of darkest adversity. You see comradeship of the most truthful kind. Taken from the unique archives of the Daily Mail, the images capture the small moments of un-named individual people in the cataclysmic catastrophe that was branded 'the war to end all wars'--Dust jacket

An anthology of some of the best known authors and illustrators from the First World War

A Corner of a Foreign Field seamlessly interweaves biography with history, the lives of famous or forgotten cricketers with wider processes of social change. C. K. Nayudu and Sachin Tendulkar naturally figure in this book but so, too, in unexpected ways, do B. R. Ambedkar, Mahatma Gandhi, and M. A. Jinnah. The Indian careers of those great British cricketers, Lord Harris and D. R. Jardine, provide a window into the operations of Empire. The remarkable life of India’s first great slow bowler, Palwankar Baloo, provides an arresting new perspective on the struggle against caste discrimination. Later chapters explore the competition between Hindu and Muslim cricketers in colonial India and the destructive passions now provoked when India plays Pakistan. For this new edition, Ramachandra Guha has added a fresh introduction as well as a long new chapter, bringing the story up to date to cover, among other things, the advent of the Indian Premier League and the Indian team’s victory in the World Cup of 2011, these linked to social and economic transformations in contemporary India. A pioneering work, essential for anyone interested in either of those vast themes, cricket and India, A Corner of a Foreign Field is also a beautifully written meditation on the ramifications of sport in society at large.

This compelling historical novel set during the Second World War shows that sometimes falling apart is only steps away from falling in love.