Alan Hill (1928 – 5 February 2021[1]) was a prominent biographer of cricketers.

Career

Hill grew up in Yorkshire, and worked as a journalist, first in Yorkshire, then in London, where he joined Hayter's Sports Agency.[1] He won The Cricket Society/MCC Book of the Year award twice: in 1986 for Hedley Verity: A Portrait of a Cricketer, and in 1991 for Herbert Sutcliffe: Cricket Maestro.[2]

Reviewing Herbert Sutcliffe in Wisden, John Arlott called Hill's biographies "distinguished", "right in subject, treatment and content", and added: "Mr Hill's style is both balanced and unfussy; he knows when to state and when to quote ... he constantly leads the reader to think, thus heightening both his concentration and his interest."[3] Reviewing Daring Young Men for Cricinfo, Rob Steen called Hill "a nostalgist of occasional elegance and vast industry".[4] In Wisden in 2003 Frank Keating said, "Down the years, the diligent cuttings-librarian Hill has been a productive cottage industry, doing the game proud with a succession of fond and important studies".[5]

Alan Hill lived and worked in the Mid Sussex village of Lindfield for the last 50 years of his life.[6] He and his wife Betty, who predeceased him by seven days, had no children.[1]

Books

  • The Family Fortune: A Saga of Sussex Cricket (1978)
  • A Chain of Spin Wizards (1983)
  • Hedley Verity: A Portrait of a Cricketer (1986)
  • Johnny Wardle: Cricket Conjuror (1988)
  • Les Ames (1990)
  • Herbert Sutcliffe: Cricket Maestro (1991)
  • Bill Edrich: A Biography (1994)
  • Peter May: The Authorised Biography (1996)
  • Jim Laker: A Biography (1998)
  • The Bedsers: Twinning Triumphs (2001)
  • Brian Close: Cricket's Lionheart (2002)
  • Daring Young Men: The Story of England's Victorious Tour of Australia and New Zealand, 1954-55 (2005)
  • Tony Lock: Aggressive Master of Spin (2008)
  • The Valiant Cricketer: The Biography of Trevor Bailey (2012)

References

  1. 1 2 3 Bradbury, Anthony. "Alan Hill Tribute". The Cricket Writers' Club. Archived from the original on 25 February 2021. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
  2. ↑ "The Cricket Society/MCC Book of the Year". The Cricket Society. Archived from the original on 15 April 2019. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  3. ↑ John Arlott, "Cricket Books, 1991", Wisden 1992, p. 1324.
  4. ↑ Steen, Rob. "Daring Young Men". Cricinfo. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  5. ↑ Frank Keating, "Cricket Books, 2001", Wisden 2003, p. 1671.
  6. ↑ "Alan Hill". Sports Book Awards. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
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