A very funny book about an amateur cricket team, the Captain Scott Invitiation XI, formed by a group of Oxford undergraduates in the 1980’s. Harry Thompson was one of the founder members and went on to forge a career as a TV comedy producer, best known for co-creating Have I Got News for You and They Think It’s All Over. Sadly diagnosed with lung cancer he died just after completing this book.
The book follows the team as they embark on a mission to play cricket on each continent of the world. Lots of funny anecdotes about matches, opponents & nights out for the team told in a fluid light hearted manner. An enjoyable yarn of sporting incompetence.
| Primary Genre | Non-Fiction Books of the Month |
| Recommendations: |
It seemed a simple enough idea at the outset: to assemble a team of eleven men to play cricket on each of the seven continents of the globe.
Except – hold on a minute – that`s not a simple idea at all. And when you throw in incompetent airline officials, amorous Argentine Colonels` wives, cunning Bajan drug dealers, gay Australian waiters, overzealous American anti-terrorist police, idiot Welshmen dressed as Santa Claus, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and whole armies of pitch-invading Antarctic penguins, you quickly arrive at a whole lot more than you bargained for.
Harry Thompson`s hilarious book tells the story of one of those great idiotic enterprises that only an Englishman could have dreamed up, and only a bunch of Englishmen could possibly have wished to carry out.
Penguins Stopped Play features in the following genres: Non-Fiction Books of the Month, eBooks of the Month, Recommendations
Penguins Stopped Play is available in Paperback
Penguins Stopped Play was written by Harry Thompson and published by John Murray General Publishing Division
Penguins Stopped Play has 304 pages
£11.69