Award-winning cricket writer looks to Chalke up a hat-trick
Stephen Chalke did not take up cricket writing until 1997, when he was in his 50th year, yet it is a measure of the strong contribution he has made to the genre that there are few cricket libraries or personal collections that do not contain something he has written or published. His publishing business, Fairfield Books, has grown from its beginnings as a self-publishing vehicle for his own debut book to boasting a catalogue that now stands at about 30 titles. His authors include veteran cricket journalist David Foot, broadcaster Pat Murphy and the current Nottinghamshire batsman, Mark Wagh. No fewer than seven Fairfield titles have captured national book awards. The latest, Of Didcot And The Demon, a collection of the cricket writings of former Times reporter Alan Gibson, was Cricket Society and MCC Book of the Year in 2010, scooping the award for Fairfield for the second year running and for an unprecedented third time overall. Fairfield has also won the National Sporting Club