Book launch: This New North anthology at Leeds Lit Fest on Wednesday 3 March 2021 8pm

My next reading will be at the launch of This New North, an anthology of short fiction by Northern writers, edited by S. J. Bradley, and Anna Chilvers, published by Valley Press.

You can book tickets here: https://www.leedslitfest.co.uk/whats-on/

The event is “pay as you feel”. If you are from Yorkshire, you may have surmised that means that you can pay nowt, which is true, as far as it goes.
My contribution to this publication is a story I wrote as part of the Northern Short Story Academy, in 2020. I was part of the second intake of that Academy.

The anthology includes stories by established writers, such as Richard Smyth. This is the second time that a story of mine has been included in the same anthology as one by Richard Smyth.

An introduction to the bowling of James Anderson

“My name is James Anderson. I am going to talk to you about bowling, in the game of cricket. You need to pad up, and have a bat.”
“OK.”
“I am going to deliver the ball at about 85 miles per hour – “
“That sounds quite fast.”
“It’s not as fast as I used to deliver it. I wouldn’t complain, if I were you.”
“So 85 miles per hour is slower that it used to be?”
“Yes. As I was saying: and I am going to bowl it with swing.”
“What does ‘swing’ mean?”
“It means that when I release the ball from my hand, it won’t travel in a straight line. It will move through the air, depending on which side of the ball I present, when I deliver it.”
“Depending on which side of the ball?”
“Yes. The ball has a shiny side, and a dull side. We put a lot of effort into ensuring that one side is shinier than the other.”
“So, how do I know which way the ball is going to go?”
“You don’t.”
“I don’t?”
“No. The first thing is that, in order to tell which way the ball is going to swing, you need to know which way I am holding the ball. But I will cover the ball with my other hand, until the last moment. Even if you work out by the way that the ball comes out of my hand which way it is, it will probably be too late for you to react. “
“OK.”
“And then there is reverse swing.”
“What is reverse swing?”
“I will bowl the ball at you, about 60 times, and you will get used to the way it moves through the air. And then it will start moving the opposite way. Everything you thought was right will be proved wrong, and you will begin to doubt your own existence. That is reverse swing.”
“Is that allowed?”
“Definitely. Ask the MCC, if you don’t believe me.”
“So, as long as I can cope with trying to hit a ball that arrives at 85 mph, and swings either way, I should be all right.”
“No. You will also need to deal with movement off the seam.”
“What is that?”
“You see the stitching around the ball? When I bowl it at you at 85 miles per hour, I am going to try to get the stitching to hit the ground, so that the ball bounces as irregularly as possible. I can try to combine the stitching on the ball with any irregularities on the surface the pitch. I might release the ball with a twisting motion, so that even I don’t know how the seam is going to hit the pitch, and bounce off. That introduces another degree of randomness.”
“And this is still within the rules?”
“Yes. And slower balls. And bouncers.”
“What are bouncers?”
“I am allowed to bowl the ball deliberately short, so that it bounces to just the right height to hit your body in a vulnerable place.”
“That doesn’t sound very nice.”
“And when I do that, I might bowl it faster than 85 miles per hour.”
“I thought you said you couldn’t bowl faster than 85 miles per hour, anymore.”
“I didn’t say that. I can crank it up a bit when I bowl a bouncer.”
“Can I just read this back to you?”
“By all means.”
“You are going to deliver a missile which weighs 5 and three-quarter ounces at me, at about 85 miles per hour, and it is going to move through the air one way or the other, but I won’t know which way at least until you have released it. When it hits the ground, it is going to move erratically, again. Sometimes, you are going to propel it towards me in such a way as to cause impact with my body. And you get to do this in batches of six times.”
“That is your introduction to pace bowling.”