Lara: The England Chronicles – Brian Lara's new autobiography

Set for release on 2 July, Lara: The England Chronicles tells the story of the Trinidadian’s extraordinary career against and in England in his own words – unfiltered and unrestrained.

Published by Fairfield Books and written with Phil Walker, editor-in-chief of Wisden Cricket Monthly, this is the definitive account of Lara’s incredible career against England as well as for Warwickshire in county cricket.

About the book

The true untouchables of sport possess a kind of mystery, and Lara – thrill-seeker, record-holder and genius – stands as perhaps cricket’s deepest enigma, at once a beautifully free strokemaker whose creativity captured an era, and an often tortured presence at the heart of a faltering West Indies side as the great teams of the past faded from view.

He saved his best work for England. His two world-record Test innings both came against them, ten years apart. His otherworldly 501*, the highest score in cricket history, took place in Birmingham. Even his final game for the West Indies came against England.

He understood what was at stake, what he stood for. Lara saw himself as a torchbearer for generations of revolutionary cricketers from the Caribbean stretching back through the ages, their deeds reilluminated with flashes of his own. It was against this backdrop that Lara produced some of the most extraordinary batting ever seen on the cricket field.

"If the period between the wars was about black West Indians fighting for a spot in the team,” he writes, “and the Fifties and Sixties about showing our colonial masters that we can govern ourselves, then the Seventies and Eighties were about showing the world that when we’re strong and united, we’re untouchable.

"I barrelled through all this stuff, all the while wondering how all this history, all these stories, would infuse what was still to come. How, I dared wonder, would the Nineties be remembered? We were arriving at my own time."

Thirty years since his first world record, and twenty since he reclaimed it with Test cricket’s only quadruple century, Lara is ready to tell his own story: the incomparable highs and harrowing lows of a life lived on the edge.

Lara on...

Breaking records

“This game, man. It’s not just about playing and doing your best. It’s entertainment. To entertain is the thing. It’s always been with me. Make them dance. Make it a spectacle. My mind is fresh. Adrenaline takes over. No sleep. If I sleep, I might miss something. I’m not wasted or tired. I have a quick knock up, then Clive Lloyd asks me, do I mind if the TV people hand me my bat on the way out. I’m cool with that, it’s all part of the show, I say. By day three my shirt is pretty stained, but I pull it on anyway. I’m not superstitious. It just feels right. Bell rings. The crowd lose their minds. Gower and Botham wait on the outfield with their microphones. One of them hands me my bat. Showtime.” 

Winning trophies

“This fractious group of men, given literally no chance, have pulled off a miracle. For one night, and for probably the first time in 10 years, I feel as if everybody is pulling in one direction. It’s beautiful. Fleeting and brief, and we all have to wake up in the morning. But for that one night, beautiful.”

Final afternoons

“Even as I’m speaking, I can feel what it means. I know what I’m really saying. I can hear it in my voice. Some of the crowd won’t pick it up, but a good number will. I’m saying that I didn’t quite achieve what I set out to do. At least did I entertain you? Did I at least bring a little pleasure and joy through the way I played the game? At least offer some hope to people who lived vicariously through the successes and greatness of West Indies cricket, whose daily moods ebbed and flowed depending on the fortunes of their team? I brought some pride and identity to Caribbean people when I did well, right? At least I did that? At least, at least.”

Motivations

“What motivated me to make runs, always, was the team. Any time I went away from that, turned a bit inward, started thinking about my name on honours boards and things like that, then I’d fall apart. A man doesn’t play cricket by himself. Nor should he play it for himself. Cricket isn’t golf or tennis. It’s not about grand slams and individual titles. Cricket is an expression of collective action, or it’s nothing at all.”

“In movies the star sometimes dies. So don’t be afraid to let me die at the end, please.”

Brian Lara

Praise for Lara: The England Chronicles

Sir Trevor McDonald

“I thought I had heard it all. I was wrong. Brian Lara's book proves it. Written in the first person it's an intimate account of the emotional complexities of one of the greatest players in history. Once you begin to read this book it will be very difficult to put it down. It confirms something I have always suspected. The minds of great sportsmen are not like ours. They are far greater.”

Michael Atherton

“Watching Brian Lara was to understand how batting could be.”

Gideon Haigh

“No-one batted like Brian Lara, and few cricketers have talked so openly of their lives and their drives – a book worth waiting for.”

Rob Smyth

“A vivid and at times shocking insight into the exhilaration and pain of being a true genius."

Osman Samiuddin

“The epic scale of Lara's batting, his career and life, his highs and lows, reconstructed in evocative detail.”

About the author

Brian Lara is one of cricket’s greatest players. Holder of the world record for the highest Test score and the only player in history to breach the 500-run mark in a first-class innings, the left-hander bestrode the game in the years either side of the millennium. Since retirement he has turned his hand to commentary and coaching and set up the Bunty and Pearl Foundation, a charity in memory of his parents that aims to tackle health and social care issues primarily in his native Trinidad.

About the co-author

Phil Walker is the editor-in-chief of Wisden Cricket Monthly. He was previously the editor of All Out Cricket magazine and his work has appeared in the Guardian,

ESPNcricinfo, the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, the Nightwatchman and others.

All media enquiries

Matt Thacker, Fairfield Books – matt.thacker@forwardpress.uk and 07968 078877

Buy the book

Lara: The England Chronicles is published on 2 July 2024 by Fairfield Books. 

Click here to buy the hardback format (RRP £25.00). 

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