"The best cricket based novel I have read, an analogy is drawn between the way one has to wait, both in life and in the game, for one's fortune to change" - Matthew Engel, The Guardian
 
"There is a blasting passion and, when the novel expands itself to receive the final notes of tragedy, it does so with a cunning that recalls the game at its best" - William Trevor, The Guardian
 
This allegory of life set around a game of cricket is based on the wartime coasts of West Africa; and played out amongst the men of a flying-boat squadron. 'This whole business from start to end, was like a game of cricket, the issue never sure, who'd win, who'd lose, and who'd just watch...and go away!' Flanders, an RAF photographer, who idea of fair play is shattered by Turton, an officer but no gentleman. Turton sets out to take from people what they want most, self-esteem, success, the final on the dusty cricket square, even Caroline, the girl both Flanders and his friend Wakerley fall for. But all is not fair, even in love and war.
 
"This is the best of the novels" - JL Carr