Richard Bentley

Not a biography but a few things about the book

It has been reviewed on cricket web, see http://www.cricketweb.net/books/a-war-to-the-knife-2/

for the full review.

And there's a couple of questions I've been asked about the book.

"A War To The Knife, what's that all about then?"

It comes from a quote by Learie Constantine about test cricket,

"To win you need not only the strenuous effort of individual players: the work of each player must be backed by a sense of solidarity, of all the others supporting him, not only actually but so to speak in the spirit. The lack of this is the chief weakness of the West Indian team in big cricket. We have not been able to get together in the sort of spirit which says look –- look here, we are going out today against those fellows and it is a war to the knife.”

The second question is, "What got you interested cricket matches played eighty years ago?"

I came across an internet comment about the second test of 1933 when West Indian bowlers, Manny Martindale and Learie Constantine bowled bodyline at England. It seemed a precursor to the cricket I had watched as a boy where I'd hidden behind the sofa and seen West Indian teams blow away all comers and it made be wonder about the reaction of the English public to the English tactic of bodyline when reproduced by West Indian bowlers. I'd already read Beyond a Boundary by CLR James (a very fine book, you should definately read it, but preferably after you've read my book) and reading around the test match series of 1933 and 1935 realised how many different issues were woven into those games of cricket. And the idea began to occur to me .... There's a book in this.

Then it just took me 6 years to write it. It's been a labour of love and I hope you enjoy "A War To The Knife".

I also have a blog http://sideoncricket.blogspot.com/2019/07/world-cup-2023-tournament-xi.html