The Homage by Litherland, S.J.

The Homage has been nominated for the Cricket Book of the Year Award, shortlist to be announced at the end of January


From: Thoughts Between Wickets

Cricket is like my forebears, part English,

part Colonial. They all want to take on
The Old Country. I’m that irony:

Anglo-Indian child of love over tyranny,
who plays for his country, his England.


NASSER HUSSAIN was, by his own definition, a fiery cricketer. He brought passion to a game often associated with relaxed days and picnic hampers. As England captain he astonishingly dragged English cricket from the bottom towards the top. But nothing became him like his leaving of it.

His last year was beset with media sniping at his place in the England side. Fans watched with held breath as the famous grit and 'bloody-mindedness' took the field. It was a drama of a sporting hero conquering enemies on and off the field, fear of humiliation, and time itself.

S.J. Litherland repays his passion by making him her muse for a season. Her cycle of poems The Homage was written in the heat of the action. As Hussain travels to redemptive triumph, she travels with him as a poet, and also journeys her own path towards forgiving a tyrannical father, the man who taught her to love cricket.

Reviews of The Homage

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	11 January 2007
The Northern Echo
Reviewer: Harry Mead
"Jackie's fifth poetry collection, this one not only hits the poetic sweet spot but bears the hallmark of a collector's item." Harry Mead
	11 January 2007
Reviewer: Kevin Cadwallender Publication: Durham Literature Festival
"... a master poet at work ...I hope Nasser Hussain is thrilled by this. He should be. Well played, that woman!" Kevin Cadwallender

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