Fred: Then and Now - Don Mosey

It is twenty-two years since Frederick Sewards Trueman bowled his last ball in first-class cricket, yet his name still makes headline news around the world. He was the greatest fast bowler in the world at the height of his career and arguably the greatest ever to be born in England – the first man in history to take 300 Test wickets, and at a time when far fewer Tests were played and in a much less rapid sequence than they are today.

Not only was he an all-time great as a player but he was by far the most colour-ful and best-known character in the game – fiery, controversial, a man of strong opinions and strong words. His bowling was hallmarked by its sheer naked hostility, yet he was a fine technician and the most accomplished master of the late outswinger since Ray Lindwall, whom he greatly admired. Since his retirement he has never been out of the public gaze as a newspaper critic, broadcaster, entertainer and TV personality, and now, at sixty, his name is as widely-known as it was when he was the scourge of Test and county cricket batsmen everywhere.

A new generation of players, critics and spectators has grown up who never saw FST the cricketer but who know him, just the same, in one of his other roles. Since his first appearance for Yorkshire in May 1949, Fiery Fred has been one of the most immediately-recognisable soubriquets in the world of cricket.

In this new biography his friend, broadcasting colleague and occasional literary associate, Don Mosey, looks at the bowler with admiration, at the man with affection and at both (he hopes) with a proper sense of proportion.