Jim - The Life of E W Swanton

The death of E.W. Swanton in January 2000, at the age of 92, brought to an end a remarkable life that spanned, and in many ways summed up, almost the whole of the 20th century. He was best known as the doyen of cricket correspondents, reporting for the Daily Telegraph, editing "The Cricketer" magazine, summarising the day's play for "Test Match Special" in his mellifluous baritone, and publishing over 20 books. But there was much more to him. Captured in the fall of Singapore, he spent several years as a prisoner of the Japanese on the notorious Burma-Siam railway - a savage experience during which he embraced a lifelong Christian faith. He was an outspoken critic of the cricket establishment's appeasement of apartheid South Africa. He seemed to know everyone among the great and the good, from prime ministers to governors-general, in every country he visited. He is even supposed to have watched the great W.G. Grace play - from his pram. A confirmed bachelor until the age of 50, he then enjoyed 40 years of happy marriage. Some thought him arrogant, even snobbish ("He is quite prepared", went the joke, "to travel in the same car as his chauffeur"), but countless others, from young cricketers whom he encouraged to local people in his home county of Kent whom he helped in times of trouble, testified to his limitless generosity. For all his grandness and dignity, to everyone who knew him he was simply, "Jim".