{"title":"Brendan Cooper","description":"\u003cp\u003eBrendan Cooper’s books delve into the rich tapestry of sports, blending vivid storytelling with insightful commentary. Titles like \u003cem\u003eBall of the Century\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eEchoing Greens\u003c\/em\u003e capture the passion, drama, and enduring spirit of athletic competition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eReaders can expect engaging narratives that explore both iconic moments and the subtle nuances of sport, offering a fresh perspective on the games that inspire us all. Cooper’s work brings to life the thrill of the pitch and the stories behind the players.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"echoing-greens-by-brendan-cooper-9781408719459","title":"Echoing Greens","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe importance of cricket to England has been immortalised in the art and literature of a thousand years. For countless artists and writers across the centuries, the culture and aesthetics of cricket—white-clad players, the crack of bat on ball, booming appeals, admiring applause, figures running up to bowl, batsmen leaning, waiting, swinging the blade—have been as essential to the English landscape as the hills and meadows immortalised by Gainsborough, Constable, and Turner.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt is a story that is known in part, but one that has never been explored in full. It is lined with surprises, forgotten tales, and unnoticed details—ranging from medieval manuscript illustrations, through a dazzling variety of visual art, poetry, fiction, and drama, to recent portraits of contemporary heroes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eEchoing Greens\u003c\/i\u003e is a fascinating and thoughtful exploration of the bond between cricket and the English imagination. It unveils that beneath cosy patriotic dreams of 'English values', a much wilder, more complex story exists. Alongside stories of heroic figures, noble values, and pastoral idylls, the literature and the art of cricket also tell of vice, violence, and scandal. The result is a thrilling investigation into the true story behind these representations of the game, and forces us to reconsider the history of cricket itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46985797009644,"sku":"9781408719459","price":56.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/15305283482689.jpg?v=1762993302"},{"product_id":"ball-of-the-century-by-brendan-cooper-9780349000497","title":"Ball of the Century","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003ci\u003e. . . the ball drifted further and further and further and then dropped, hitting the pitch seven or eight inches outside leg stump before turning at a brutal, impossible angle . . .\u003c\/i\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNever, in all of cricket's rich and profound history, has one delivery had such a devastating impact. Rarely, if ever, has a player shot so instantaneously from obscurity to worldwide fame. The history of cricket can even be said to be split in two, either side of that moment. Pre- and post-Warne. After the Ball of the Century, everything had changed. That burst of superior magic would haunt English cricket for the rest of the decade, as well as transforming the nature of the game—resurrecting the art of leg spin, and plaguing batsmen's dreams.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the early 90s, England's performances had already been patchy. Management and leadership were frail. Just before that ill-fated summer of '93, England had lost every single test in their tour of the subcontinent. At the very moment that Warne removed Mike Gatting's off bail, a new shadow covered everything. It was an era-defining moment—a cricketing atom bomb from which it would take them a long time to recover.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eBall of the Century\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of cricket in the final years of the twentieth century, either side of that fateful day. For all that has been written about Warne, one of the transcendent legends of world sport, there has never been a book written about that ball and its legacy. England would go on to lose every Ashes series that decade; by the summer of 1999, they had become officially the worst team in the world. It was only as a new century dawned that a brighter era began to surface, with the struggles and disappointments of one decade spawning the triumphs of the next.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eBall of the Century\u003c\/i\u003e will explore how cricket's most iconic moment shook cricket to the core. In doing so, it will show how a single moment really can shape history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47310110490860,"sku":"9780349000497","price":39.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/e49fa6587b5bf95f9bc4772d38b01d48_3caa4b30-6512-4c92-8d2a-872dfa9eda40.jpg?v=1771211240"},{"product_id":"echoing-greens-by-brendan-cooper-9781408719442","title":"Echoing Greens","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe importance of cricket to England has been immortalised in the art and literature of a thousand years. For countless artists and writers across the centuries, the culture and aesthetics of cricket—white-clad players, the crack of bat on ball, booming appeals, admiring applause, figures running up to bowl, batsmen leaning, waiting, swinging the blade—have been as essential to the English landscape as the hills and meadows immortalised by Gainsborough, Constable, and Turner.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt is a story that is known in part, but one that has never been explored in full. And it is lined with surprises, forgotten tales, and unnoticed details—ranging from medieval manuscript illustrations, through a dazzling variety of visual art, poetry, fiction, and drama, to recent portraits of contemporary heroes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eEchoing Greens\u003c\/i\u003e is a fascinating and thoughtful exploration of the bond between cricket and the English imagination. It unveils that beneath cosy patriotic dreams of 'English values', a much wilder, more complex story exists. Alongside stories of heroic figures, noble values, and pastoral idylls, the literature and the art of cricket also tell of vice, violence, and scandal. The result is a thrilling investigation into the true story behind these representations of the game, and forces us to reconsider the history of cricket itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47460713627884,"sku":"9781408719442","price":59.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781408719442-echoing-greens.jpg?v=1774951536"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/collections\/brendan-cooper.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}