Turning Over the Pebbles

'If you go on like this, you'll do nothing but play cricket all your life.' These were the exasperated words of Mike Brearley's mother, as he once again tracked mud into the house after a long day playing outdoors. They were also an unknowing prediction, for Brearley's is a life that has always been closely intertwined with cricket.One of England's finest cricket captains, Mike Brearley looks back on a lifetime of the sport, from joyful childhood games to his captaincy in the 1981 Ashes home series, leading England to one of their most famous victories. A trained psychoanalyst, Brearley seamlessly blends reflection on his sporting life with introspections on literature, religion and leadership, reflecting on his experiences both on and off the field.Intelligent and insightful, Turning Over the Pebbles is a memoir brimming with Brearley's private passions, as he reflects on an extraordinary life and career.'Brearley has a gentle, measured intellect that is warming and intriguing rather than intimidating or irritating . . . Brearley has a rare ability to read the game and its participants with delicacy and precision, like a tailor unpicking a collection of knotted threads' Wisden Cricket Monthly

Sunday Times 'Book of the Week'
A superb book - much more than a traditional memoir . . . this is a sharp, witty and unashamedly learned meditation on art and music, literature and the Classics, philosophy, psychoanalysis, childhood and old age, families and feelings, illness and the imminence of death . . . And of course cricket. It is unlike any book you will read this year . . . This book is an inspiration, showing us how to live our best lives Sunday Times
A Masterclass . . . [A] stimulating memoir . . . It is hard to think of any other sportsman - or come to it, any other philosopher or analyst - who makes for such agreeable, such stimulating , such warm, company Daily Telegraph
Absolutely riveting -- Amol Rajan BBC Radio 4 Today
Unexpected rewards to the reader on every page -- Simon Barnes The Cricketer
Whether discussing philosophy, psychoanalysis, literature or cricket . . . Brearley is compelling company Guardian

Mike Brearley OBE was educated at Cambridge, where he read classics and moral sciences, and captained the university. He played for Middlesex County Cricket Club intermittently from 1961 to 1983, captaining the side from 1971 to 1982. He first played for England in 1976 and captained the side from 1977 to 1980, winning seventeen test matches and losing only four. He was recalled to the captaincy in 1981 for the Ashes home series, leading England to one of their most famous victories. Since retiring from cricket in 1982, he trained and continues to work as a psychoanalyst, and is a lecturer on leadership and motivation. He is the author of the bestselling The Art of Captaincy , and has written on cricket and the psychology of sport for the Observer and most recently The Times . He lives in London.

'If you go on like this, you'll do nothing but play cricket all your life.' These were the exasperated words of Mike Brearley's mother, as he once again tracked mud into the house after a long day playing outdoors. They were also an unknowing prediction, for Brearley's is a life that has always been closely intertwined with cricket.One of England's finest cricket captains, Mike Brearley looks back on a lifetime of the sport, from joyful childhood games to his captaincy in the 1981 Ashes home series, leading England to one of their most famous victories. A trained psychoanalyst, Brearley seamlessly blends reflection on his sporting life with introspections on literature, religion and leadership, reflecting on his experiences both on and off the field.Intelligent and insightful, Turning Over the Pebbles is a memoir brimming with Brearley's private passions, as he reflects on an extraordinary life and career.'Brearley has a gentle, measured intellect that is warming and intriguing rather than intimidating or irritating . . . Brearley has a rare ability to read the game and its participants with delicacy and precision, like a tailor unpicking a collection of knotted threads' Wisden Cricket Monthly

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