Born in England but living his formative years in Australia, David Frith has been in a unique position to use his enormous writing talent, aligned to his passion for the game of cricket, to inform and entertain cricket lovers throughout the world for over four decades. He is a writer, collector and enthusiast in equal measure.
He has written over 30 books on cricket and is the only author to have won the prestigious Cricket Society Book of the Year award three times. He produced the sumptuous ‘Pageant of Cricket’ in 1987. The book, a pictorial history of the game, contains over two thousand illustrations all painstakingly researched. His ‘Pictorial History of Ashes Tests’, first published in 1977, has run to twelve editions and has sold over 100,000 copies. ‘Bodyline Autopsy’, his tale of the infamous 1932-1933 tour to Australia, is rightly considered a Classic. His recent offering, ‘Frith on Cricket’, is a comprehensive collection of his best writing on the game’s history, classic matches, great players and personalities. Its first chapter is his first ever essay on the game, written whilst at school after meeting Alec Bedser in Sydney in 1952. David also edited ‘The Cricketer’ from 1972 until 1978. A year later he founded ‘Wisden Cricket Monthly’ and was its editor until 1996.
He played the game for nearly 50 years and was good enough to be a First Grade batsman in Sydney. He enjoyed a close relationship with Sir Donald Bradman and counts many other past and present great players, writers and journalists as his friends.
We last welcomed him to Cheltenham in our 1995-1996 season. The game has changed much in those seventeen years. David has never shirked controversy when fighting for the interests of the game he has loved for 60 years and we are delighted that he has agreed to return and share his thoughts with us.