A quartet of Fairfield titles have been named in the six-strong shortlist for the 2025 Derek Hodgson Book Award, the annual gong presented by the Cricket Media Club (formerly the Cricket Writers’ Club).
A Striking Summer by Stephen Brenkley, One Hell of a Life by Stephen Chalke, Cricket Changed My Life by Annie Chave and In Syd’s Voice by Dave Lawrence with Dean Wilson were all deemed worthy of a place in the final ’round’ of judging, with the winner set to be announced at the CMC Annual Lunch on October 23.
Paul Edwards, who leads the book award committee, said: “During my time chairing the Derek Hodgson Award this has been the best year for cricket books and the worst for judging them. Along with congratulations to the six authors on the shortlist must go my commiserations to those on the longlist, who have written very fine books and will be disappointed. Members of the CMC should be in no doubt of my belief that some of those that didn’t make the cut this October would have done so with some ease in other years. I can only commend both lists to members. If nothing else, this year has shown how much high-quality cricket writing and research is still being done.”
The full shortlist for this year’s Derek Hodgson Book Award is as follows:
Stephen Brenkley – A Striking Summer
Stephen Chalke – One Hell of a Life
Annie Chave – Cricket Changed My Life
Dave Lawrence with Dean Wilson – In Syd’s Voice
Leo McKinstry – Bill Edrich
Tim Wigmore – Test Cricket: A History