Cricket's Historians

262 A Spate of County Histories County Club and the terrible financial battle that the committee waged to prevent collapse. The contrast between Foot’s Somerset history and the next county saga – Essex County Cricket Club: An Official History is stark indeed. The co- authors are David Lemmon and Mike Marshall. It is twice the length of Foot’s book. Marshall, who died in Southend in 1995 aged 81, was educated at King’s, Canterbury and was a shipbroker in the City. He retired from business in 1975 and then served on various Essex C.C.C. sub-committees, later being appointed a Vice-President of the County Club. He owned a substantial cricket library and had an extensive collection of memorabilia, especially related to Essex. It was a solid work, but did not add much to the known history of the county and failed to give lively portraits of the players. In 1986, Richard Wigmore, of Christopher Helm Publishers, decided, presumably on the strength of the three county histories just noted, to launch a uniform series of county histories and appointed Peter Arnold and Peter Wynne-Thomas as series editors. Peter Arnold was the author of numerous sports books, as well as being, until he retired, sports editor at Hamlyns. He was born in April 1931 in Croydon and educated at Wallington County School, after which he joined Temple Press, which merged with Newnes and finally with Hamlyns. In 1986 his book The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Cricket had been published by Marshall Cavendish. The first books in the series – Kent by Dudley Moore, Glamorgan by Andrew Hignell, Middlesex by David Lemmon and Hampshire by Peter Wynne-Thomas with a personal view by John Arlott – all appeared in 1988. Taking the Glamorgan book as a typical example, the general history ran to 269 pages with about 70 photographs and a number of full scorecards. The more important players had single page biographies. The record section comprised a list of all players with brief details and career records, the results of all Championship matches and the usual selection of general records. The most notable new name is that of Andrew Keith Hignell, who was