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Penguins Stopped Play
‘Completely brilliant’ Ian Hislop
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.
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.
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Reviews
Praise for Harry Thompson and Penguins Stopped Play:
'Actually completely brilliant'
'Hilarious'
'A real gold standard sense of humour'
'Rare, clever, creative ... a maverick, pushing boundaries with outrageous jokes'
'The first chapter deserves to be anthologised alongside the funniest passages of cricket writing in the game's rich literary history, and what follows is crammed with sharp observation, comic and cruel characterisation and a great many very good jokes...It is a gloriously funny and life-affirming book, and if you know anyone who plays cricket and can read you should buy it for them' - Andrew Baker
'Surely the funniest book ever written about the English addiction to cricket...a beautiful tale of classic British humour, self-deprecation, great courage and one of the best accounts ever of the obsessive appeal of our summer game to those whose lives revolve around it' - Tom Rosenthal
'Engaging and full of humour, though it ends with an abrupt shift in tone when Thompson discovers that he has inoperable lung cancer' - Ludovic Hunter-Tilney
'As funny as you would expect from the (sadly deceased) writer of Have I Got News For You'
'A hilarious, eccentically English memoir.'
'In the whirl of hangovers, jetlag, sleeplessness and general unreliability, humour was the saviour.'
'Delicious...This book is the perfect tribute to his greatest enthusiasm: a delivery which spins delicately past the straight bat of our expectations' - Pete Clark
'Funny and inspiring...Thompson writes with a novelist's sympathy about a wonderfully mixed bunch of characters' - Hugh Massingberd
'Let's get one thing clear from the off - I don't get cricket...The fact that I loved Penguins Stopped Play can only be testament to Harry Thompson's brilliant writing, sardonic humour and English love of farce' - Lizzie Matthews
'An eccentic, funny and very English story'
'Part travelogue, part tale of the sporting underdog, and with its combination of frustration and wit, this is a book British cricket lovers will adore this summer'
'Hilarious'
'The writing is crisper than a Gower cover drive and as witty as any of the Tales from the Long Room.'
'[Thompson] writes with wit, verve, and a genuine love of the use of language shines through... superb observational comedy writing.'
"Rarely has there been a funnier cricket book"
'This will make you laugh out loud as you enjoy the "best of British", while lamenting the passing of this coming genius.'
'[Thompson] excels as a travel writer.'
'This will make you laugh out loud while lamenting the passing of this comic genius.'
'Thompson's prose is vividly conversational... very funny.'
'Very funny it is too . . .he fills his warm-hearted book with a satisfying selection of tales'
'A highly entertaining account of one man's sporting obsession'
'This is a beautiful tale of classic British humour, self-deprecation, great courage and one of the best accounts ever of the obsessive appeal of our summer game to those whose lives revolve around it'
'Even people who despise cricket will adore Penguins Stopped Play.'
'Thompson... maintains a witty narrative... Despite his cynical eye, Thompson is never afraid to show his love of the game'
'Harry Thompson wrote with such verve and wit that he could have made a trip round a multi-storey car park into an adventure'
'A very funny, peculiarly British travel book'