The last time I wrote about the Wisden Group there were lots of negative comments from independent booksellers about the fact that Amazon was promoting and selling the Almanack at a huge discount thus making it impossible for them to compete. Of course, in the UK every retailer is able to decide what level to price at and what customer benefits it wishes to offer. The job of the publisher is to maximise sales and this year has been an absolutely outstanding year for Wisden through Amazon and through just about every retail outlet and chain we supply. Obviously winning The Ashes in 2005 helped but so did the launch of the large format edition and the brilliance of the editorial content. All parts of the book trade benefited if they wished to participate.
The company was founded by John Wisden in 1864 and I'm certain he wouldn't recognise it today. Apart from the Almanack there is a magazine (in fact several in different countries including South Africa), the most popular sports website in the world, the leading sports technology organisation, Hawk-eye, and any number of books.
Three recent books have caught my eye for different reasons. The first is the Wisden Dictionary of Cricket by Michael Rundell who is also (thank goodness) the brains and lexicographic brawn behind the best-selling Macmillan English Dictionary range.
And then a grave turner for the blessed JW, The Cricinfo Guide to International Cricket 2007 which is the only book to contain biographies and statistics about every international cricketer likely to be playing in the forthcoming World Cup in the West Indies - book your flights and hotels now and coloured pyjamas too, just in case...
Finally, the blockbuster - not in unit sales but in size, price, scholarship and insight - Wisden Anthology 1978-2006, a truly boring title but with a glimpse of what's within in the sub-title, Cricket's Age of Revolution. It is 1300 plus pages of meticulously edited nostalgia, fascination, social history and global economics. I think it's underpriced at £40 let alone whatever some booksellers choose to discount it to. Here's the press release for anyone interested:
'The last three decades of cricket have produced more tumult and controversy, heroism and villainy, thrills and scandal than anything seen since shepherd boys on the downs first turned their crooks into cricket bats.
First the game´s genteel world was convulsed by the intervention of the Australian tycoon Kerry Packer, who bought up nearly all the top players. Suddenly, cricket was played at night in pyjamas, with searingly fast bowlers aiming at the heads of helmeted batsmen.
From that, a new world emerged - one that produced England´s amazing Ashes triumphs of 1981 and 2005 (and much misery in between), the heyday of Caribbean pace, the rise of Indian influence, the match-fixing scandals... and extraordinary players such as Ian Botham, Viv Richards, Imran Khan, Brian Lara, Shane Warne, Steve Waugh, Sachin Tendulkar and Andrew Flintoff.
Through it all, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack has been there. Just as it has since 1864, this unique sporting institution has tried each year to make sense of a fast-changing global sport.
Now this anthology does the same, but for an entire generation of change.
Nearly a quarter of a century ago Wisden published four popular anthologies that celebrated the best of Wisden stretching back to its first edition. They were edited by the late Benny Green, who saw the almanack partly as "a social history of England".
Now the Wisden Anthology 1978-2006 brings the story up to date, painting a coherent, compelling picture of cricket´s evolution - and revolution. A story that was charted in more than 40,000 Wisden pages is distilled into this 1,328-page anthology. It is a portrait of the age - and of the great players and contests that ushered the game into a brave new century, and beyond. It offers a chance to replay the greatest moments of the era, from Headingley 1981 to The Oval 2005 - and assess what they all add up to.
But Wisden is not just days like that. The book tells the stories of Merv the mongrel and Hansie the rabbit, of Bill Wyman´s one-handed catch, of the sale of No.10 Dulka Road, and of the marijuana-laced cup cakes.
The obituary section includes not just Don Bradman, Herbert Sutcliffe and Jim Laker -but also "The Master", Anthony Ainley, "who despised cheeses of all kinds", the fantasist Donald Weekes, and the cricket-mad fireman, Jeff Wornham, who died trying to save a woman in a burning tower block.Wisden itself has changed in that time. In 1981 John Woodcock became editor. He ensured the book became far more than a conscientious record of facts, and made it a volume of unprecedented literary quality and cricketing authority.
Now, under Matthew Engel, it has evolved into an almanack for the internet age, with a sense of fun and a hint of subversion - without losing its reputation for accuracy, robust comment and flinty integrity.
Stephen Moss, who loves and understands both the game and the book, has synthesised the best of 29 Wisdens into one outstanding volume.
The editor
Stephen Moss has been in love with cricket for 40 years, ever since a chance sighting of a game in Barry, South Wales, cured a sun-induced headache as a child. It has been balm for the soul ever since. He has played for many teams, always ineptly, and still turns out for an Observer newspaper XI. He has scored three fifties in a 30-year career, and has occasionally propelled the perfect leg-break. When he is not sneaking off to The Oval, watching his beloved (though ever-challenging) Glamorgan or poring over battered copies of Wisden, he is a feature writer for The Guardian.'
Stephen Moss is available for media interviews by contacting Christopher Lane on 01420 83415 or email chris.lane@wisdengroup.com