Basingstoke Boy - John Arlott

Basingstoke Boy is the first volume of John Arlott’s long-awaited autobiography, covering the years from 1914 to 1958. It is the story of a boy born in a cemetery lodge – his father was the assistant registrar – at Basingstoke, then a small country town, where he spent his life until twenty. After four years as a clerk at the local mental hospital, in 1934 he became a policeman in Southampton, survived the intensive blitz there, and reached the rank of sergeant before leaving in 1945.

During the war he had written some poetry and did occasional broadcasts for the BBC. When peace came he joined the Overseas Service of the BBC as a literary producer, moving to London, where he worked with many different writers including E.M. Forster, John Betjeman and Dylan Thomas, who became a close friend.

Almost by accident, in 1946 he was sent to broadcast ten-minute summaries of the first two matches of the Indian cricket tour. It was a success, and from then until his retirement to Alderney in 1980 he was to commentate on every Test match played in England, succeeding Sir Neville Cardus as cricket correspondent of The Guardian in 1968.

Reading, collecting books and playing and watching cricket were early interests. Wine came later, ‘discovered’ in Sicily on the way back from England’s cricket tour of South Africa in 1948-49. He was soon writing about it, first for The Evening News, then for the News Chronicle and eventually for The Guardian.

John Arlott looks back on the early part of his life with some amazement, recalling in his inimitable style the freakish tide of events which ultimately allowed him to earn a living from writing and broadcasting. Whether he is talking about his schooldays, about great cricketers and cricket matches, about his firsthand experiences of apartheid or about standing for the Liberals in the 1955 General Election, Basingstoke Boy is an evocative account of a rich and varied career.