- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Signal Books Ltd; First Edition edition (1 Nov 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1904955487
- ISBN-13: 978-1904955481
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.4 x 2.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 982,734 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
'Lingers on its subject with a dedicated fascination. The team's exploits should raise a smile of recognition from anyone who has ever been on a cricket tour but the book's real interest lies in the historical detail of an island which served as Tito's secret HQ during the war and remained off-limits for 40 years afterwards.' ----Wisden Cricketer
'Can I recommend a rather unusual cricket book? The Ascent of Mount Hum.' ----Lawrence Booth, Guardian website s coverage of England Test Match cricket
'Can I recommend a rather unusual cricket book? The Ascent of Mount Hum.' ----Lawrence Booth, Guardian website s coverage of England Test Match cricket
Product Description
Lying some thirty miles off the Dalmatian coast, the Croatian island of Vis has a long and dramatic history bound up with various European empires, from Ancient Greece and Rome through the Venetian Republic and Austria-Hungary to fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in the twentieth century. For forty years in the latter half of that century it was a closed military base. Today the island s 4,000 inhabitants try to strike a balance between their traditional agricultural livelihood and the pressures and temptations of European tourism in an age of globalization. The Ascent of Mount Hum tells the eventful and often hilarious story of how Vis quiet Adriatic idyll was rudely shattered by the arrival of a rag-tag team of pub cricketers from Cambridge, who went intending to play the first cricket match on Vis in nearly two hundred years. What followed included a series of fortunate coincidences and near-disasters, an almost heroic cricketing encounter, improbable cultural exchanges and the discovery of unexpected links to British history stretching back beyond the Second World War to the time of Napoleon.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
I doubt that many readers will take longer than my three goes at finishing Mr. Haslemere's witty, absurd and informative account of a bunch of boozing also-rans attempting to drink and also run. That isn't only because it is succinctly written. More significantly, it is down to the gently humorous narrative, the feeling of home-grown British under-achievement, and an insightful understanding of people and places that make the author that rare thing: a natural travel-writer.
It would be a shame to view the book only from the angle of sport. Knowing virtually nothing about cricket, I never felt lost when confronted with any of the anecdotes or descriptions of play. Haslemere, rather than blocking the uninitiated out from this bizarre little cricketing club, instead invites them in with open arms and a wink. The reader can only feel appreciative. Everyone should have the chance of getting to know such a canvas of oddballs, brought to life with real flair.
It would be a shame to view the book only from the angle of sport. Knowing virtually nothing about cricket, I never felt lost when confronted with any of the anecdotes or descriptions of play. Haslemere, rather than blocking the uninitiated out from this bizarre little cricketing club, instead invites them in with open arms and a wink. The reader can only feel appreciative. Everyone should have the chance of getting to know such a canvas of oddballs, brought to life with real flair.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
In The Ascent of Mount Hum, Steven Haslemere has written a book which should become the bible for the Pub is the Hub campaign. The St Radegund, albeit in central Cambridge rather than a rural hamlet (some would say there's no difference), is depicted as a hub of community life with its hash club, rowing club, and of course the cricket club all made up of regular social drinkers. This book makes me want to stop in for a quick one with the locals, tempted not a little by the thought that I would probably end up, several pints of ale the worse, opening the batting for the ladies' cricket team in short order.
The book is essentially the story of how a somewhat disparate group of boozers (the Cambridge graduate and his dad, the brewer, the art historian, the barman from down the road etc) ended up playing a cricket match on a small Croatian island. However, the cultural history of the island, its strategic importance, and the locals themselves all make for fascinating reading.
Whilst great fun in his descriptions of the drinking exploits of his buddies, all with nicknames born of friendly ribbing (meet The Yorskshire Sipper, Son of El Vis, Bunter et al), Steven Haslemere is at his best on the Napoleonic and Second World War history of the Croatian island of Vis. Haslemere has clearly done his research and the biographical material on Captain Sir William Hoste, RN, who has now been commemorated in the name of the island's cricket team (Kriket Klub William Hoste) is fascinating; Tito was not a character I had come across in my general reading either, but along with several bottles of Karlovacko and a couple of Veras, he is brought to life in his cave headquarters hidden deep on the island.
And of course the cricket match itself - how has the Vis team managed to practise with no pitch? Where will the match be played? Will the locals suffer a humiliating drubbing? - not likely, with the hangovers of the visitors to be taken into account!
The most heartwarming moments of the book come when we meet the locals, who work hard to make the visitors welcome on their own terms, and we are introduced to wine makers, farmers and entrepreneurs alike, all delighted in the interest shown by their new friends in their island idyll. However, there is a caveat - do not presume to come to this island and treat it as your own - they have a way of life to preserve too, a hard working one, at that, and happily their aim is to leave Vis unspoilt by the soon to be massive infulx of visiting pub cricket teams!
The book is essentially the story of how a somewhat disparate group of boozers (the Cambridge graduate and his dad, the brewer, the art historian, the barman from down the road etc) ended up playing a cricket match on a small Croatian island. However, the cultural history of the island, its strategic importance, and the locals themselves all make for fascinating reading.
Whilst great fun in his descriptions of the drinking exploits of his buddies, all with nicknames born of friendly ribbing (meet The Yorskshire Sipper, Son of El Vis, Bunter et al), Steven Haslemere is at his best on the Napoleonic and Second World War history of the Croatian island of Vis. Haslemere has clearly done his research and the biographical material on Captain Sir William Hoste, RN, who has now been commemorated in the name of the island's cricket team (Kriket Klub William Hoste) is fascinating; Tito was not a character I had come across in my general reading either, but along with several bottles of Karlovacko and a couple of Veras, he is brought to life in his cave headquarters hidden deep on the island.
And of course the cricket match itself - how has the Vis team managed to practise with no pitch? Where will the match be played? Will the locals suffer a humiliating drubbing? - not likely, with the hangovers of the visitors to be taken into account!
The most heartwarming moments of the book come when we meet the locals, who work hard to make the visitors welcome on their own terms, and we are introduced to wine makers, farmers and entrepreneurs alike, all delighted in the interest shown by their new friends in their island idyll. However, there is a caveat - do not presume to come to this island and treat it as your own - they have a way of life to preserve too, a hard working one, at that, and happily their aim is to leave Vis unspoilt by the soon to be massive infulx of visiting pub cricket teams!
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