Peter Pan's First XI: The Story of J. M. Barrie's Cricket Team

Kevin Telfer

Hodder & Stoughton, 2011 - Cricket - 344 pages

The creator of Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie, was a hugely enthusiastic cricketer of very little talent. That didn't stop him from leading perhaps the most extraordinary amateur cricket team ever to have taken the field. Some of the twentieth century's most famous writers including A. A. Milne, P. G. Wodehouse and Jerome K. Jerome, regularly turned out for Barrie's team between 1890 and 1913. This very Edwardian vision of village cricket was only brought to an end by the First World War.
Those years of golden summers were recounted in Barrie's letters and journals, many revealed here for the first time. Cricket lovers will identify with Barrie's attempts to assemble a team of competent players.
In PETER PAN'S FIRST XI, Kevin Telfer weaves together cricket, literature, history, humour and biography to create an entertaining account of this little-known band of cricketing Peter Pans - and the age in which they lived.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - MiaCulpa - LibraryThing

A well written history of J.M. Barrie's cricketing team the Allahakbarries (he mistakenly believed Allahakbarries to mean "God help us" rather than "God is Great" in Arabic). Barrie's literary ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - drmaf - LibraryThing

A thoroughly charming book and a wonderful piece of English cricketing history. J.M Barrie, the creator of Peter Pan, was an avid cricket enthusiast, and he enlisted other literary figures to create ...

About the author

Kevin Telfer is the author of three books. He has written for the Guardian, the Sunday Times and The Idler. He has a lifelong love of listening to cricket on the radio and lives in London.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Peter Pan's First XI: The Story of J. M. Barrie's Cricket Team
• Author: Kevin Telfer
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 2011
• ISBN: 0340919469, 9780340919460
• Length: 344 pages