It's Always Summer Somewhere: A Matter of Life and Cricket

"It's Always Summer Somewhere" is a BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK & SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER by Felix White. It is a funny, heartbreaking and endlessly engaging love letter to cricket, taking us through his life growing up in South West London and the tragic illness of his mother. The book explores grief, transgenerational displacement, and how the people we've known and things we've loved culminate and take expression in our lives. It culminates in the heart-stopping World Cup Final in 2019.

Format: Hardback
Length: 384 pages
Publication date: 05 August 2021
Publisher: Octopus Publishing Group

A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK & SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

Felix White's beautifully, elegantly, and passionately written book reminds me why I love cricket so much. And reading, come to that. - Stephen Fry

The love of cricket is both communal and individual. Felix has a wonderful knack of evoking both in a book full of life, joy, and resilience. - Gideon Haigh

Whether you love cricket or are still confused by the rules of the game, you'll love this. Felix's writing is warm and witty. A joy to read. - Cariad Lloyd

Felix White, for reasons often beyond him, has always been deeply in love with cricket. His passion for the game is at the fore on the BBC's number one cricket podcast and 5Live show, Tailenders, which he co-presents with Greg James and Jimmy Anderson.

It's Always Summer Somewhere is his funny, heartbreaking, and endlessly engaging love letter to the game. Felix takes us through his life growing up in South West London and describes how his story is forever punctuated and given meaning by cricket.

Through his own exploits as a slow left arm spinner of lovely loopy stuff, to the tragic illness of his mother, life with The Maccabees, and his cricket redemption, Felix touches on both the comedic and the tragic in equal measure. Throughout, there's the ever-present roller coaster of following the England cricket team.

The exploits of Tufnell (another bowler of lovely loopy stuff), Atherton, Hussain et al, are given extra import through the eyes of a cricket-obsessed youth. Felix meets them at each signposted moment to find out what was really behind those moments that gave cricket fans everywhere sporting memories that would last forever, sending the book into an exploration of grief, transgenerational displacement, and how the people we've known shape us.

Weight: 654g
Dimension: 165 x 241 x 42 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781788402422