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  • Published: 20 November 2013
  • ISBN: 9780143569176
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $27.99
Categories:

On Warne




Shane Warne, the man of a thousand international wickets, dominated cricket on the field and off for almost thirty years. Gideon Haigh - arguably the world's greatest cricket writer - reflects on one of cricket's greatest stars, including a new introduction written days after his untimely death.

Shane Warne dominated cricket on the field and off for almost thirty years – his skill, his fame, his personality, his misadventures. His death in March 2022 rocked Australians, even those who could not tell a leg-break from a leg-pull. But what was it like to watch Warne at his long peak, the man of a thousand international wickets, the incarnation of Aussie audacity and cheek?

Gideon Haigh saw it all, still can’t quite believe it, but wanted to find a way to explain it. In this classic appreciation of Australian cricket’s greatest figure, who doubled as the nation’s best-known man, Haigh relieves the highs, the lows, the fun and the follies. The result is a new way of looking at Warne, at sport and at Australia.

Winner: 2013 Jack Pollard Literary Award (Australian Cricket Society), & the 2013 UK Cricket Society and MCC Book of the Year

‘A superb portrait of the most brilliant cricketer of his generation.’
Mike Atherton

‘The Bradman of cricket writing spins us a yarn with deftness, skill and intrigue.’
Sunday Telegraph (UK)

‘You get the feeling that Haigh understands Warne’s mastery better than Warne himself.’
Waleed Aly, The Monthly

‘Brilliantly incisive but also affectionate… Packed with insight and interpretation.’
Peter Pierce, Weekend Australian

'Gideon Haigh's slim, elegant book On Warne has its own kind of confidence . . . Haigh is an excellent essayist.' New Statesman

'Haigh writes as poetically as Warne bowled . . . simply irresistible. A fabulous read.' Universal's Summer Cricket Tour Guide 2012-13

  • Published: 20 November 2013
  • ISBN: 9780143569176
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 224
  • RRP: $27.99
Categories:

About the author

Gideon Haigh

Gideon Haigh has been a journalist for forty years, and is half of the podcast Cricket Et Cetera (with Peter Lalor).

Also by Gideon Haigh

See all

Praise for On Warne

'A conventional biography would somehow obscure Warne's story. A cricket writer as peerless as Haigh knows this. Haigh's is an exquisite treatment . . . his eye for relevant detail is astonishing . . . You get the feeling that Haigh understands Warne's mastery better than Warne himself, and he never fails to capture it crisply . . . Warne's wizardry is rich enough to unleash Haigh's, and Haigh's wizardry brings Warne's to life anew.' Waleed Aly, The Monthly

PRH, PRH

'Haigh's utterly addictive book traces how and why Warne became different . . . A marvellous analysis of the Warne mystique and the prodigious talent feeding it. This is cricket writing as art, turning the creative leaps familiar in fiction or literary non-fiction to the task of anatomising the ungraspable nature of genius. On Warne is a sublime treat.' Brian Matthews, Australian Book Review

PRH, PRH

'Haigh's brilliant turn of phrase is mesmerising. He manages to be neither assassin nor cheerleader in his examination of the cricketing great. Rather than a bland biography, this is a study of what makes Warne a sometimes tragic, often amusing, usually polarising and always intriguing figure.' Scott Moore, The Advertiser (Adelaide)

PRH, PRH

'Brilliantly incisive but also affectionate . . . Packed with insight and interpretation.' Peter Pierce, Weekend Australian

PRH, PRH

'An incisive and strangely compelling read that is both entertaining and remarkable in its depth of analysis and psychological intrigue.' Wendy Cavenett, The Melbourne Review

PRH, PRH

'This book reveals two of life's certainties: one, that Gideon Haigh is an outstanding writer, and two, that Shane Warne's tabloid-fodder life is utterly compelling. Bring the two together and you have a success on your hands . . . On Warne is a book for those who love cricket generally and Warnie specifically.' Fiona Crawford, Bookseller & Publisher

PRH, PRH

'An intimate study of one of the greatest cricketers of the modern era . . . Haigh writes with perception and humour . . . A book to be savoured now and into the future.' Peter Crossing, Canberra Times

PRH, PRH

'Exceptional . . . engrossing.' Herald Sun

PRH, PRH

'On Warne is what happens when two giants come together, one sporting, the other literary.' Ben Robson, Border Mail

PRH, PRH

'Australia's best cricket writer, Gideon Haigh, on one of the game's greatest players.' Stephen Romei, Weekend Australian

PRH, PRH

'Haigh provides a deeper insight into Warne than has been provided before . . . More than a biography or a memoir, Haigh provides an astute treatise unravelling the puzzle behind the person behind the image that is Warne.' John Paul Newbury, Bonzer

PRH, PRH

'Haigh's latest book is tonic . . . For those all too ready to dismiss Warne as a naif whose failings were only excused by his ability to take wickets, On Warne presents a rather different picture.' Jeff Centenera, Inside Sport

PRH, PRH

'The Bradman of cricket writing spins us a yarn with deftness, skill and intrigue.' Taylor Auerbach, Sunday Telegraph

PRH, PRH

'Haigh writes as poetically as Warne bowled . . . Simply irresistible. A fabulous read.' Ken Piesse, Universal's Summer Cricket Tour Guide 2012-13

PRH, PRH

'Cricket has always attracted good writers, and the Australian journalist Gideon Haigh is undoubtedly among the finest at work today . . . On Warne is not a conventional biography but rather a characteristically sharp and elegant analysis of the Warne phenomenon.' Times Literary Supplement

PRH, PRH

'Gideon Haigh's slim, elegant book On Warne has its own kind of confidence . . . Haigh is an excellent essayist.' Ed Smith, New Statesman 'On Warne comes from the pen of the most gifted cricket essayist of his generation, and this short book forms as shrewd and entertaining a portrait as the era's outstanding cricketer deserves, with moments of brilliant description . . . amusing and perceptive.' Richard Williams, The Guardian

PRH, PRH

'Bloody brilliant . . . The second chapter in particular . . . is as good as anything I have read on the game . . . Haigh cuts out the extraneous information and concentrates on the essence.' Andy Bull, The Guardian

PRH, PRH

'The best cricketer of his generation deconstructed by the best cricket writer of his . . . This is a masterful book: affectionate yet detached, ceaselessly insightful yet formidably well written . . . Perhaps it is a cliche to refer to a biography as definitive; in this case it would be remiss not to do so.' Rob Smyth, The Cricketer (UK)

PRH, PRH

'Haigh's book is small but perfectly pitched. He has chosen one of the most magnetic sportsmen of the last 20 years, and he sees Shane Warne from every angle.' Daily Telegraph

PRH, PRH

'It's Haigh's analysis of Warne himself that inevitably, and rightly, steals the show . . . My favourite Haigh book to date, and frankly there have been a few.' All Out Cricket

PRH, PRH

'Cricket has taken a back seat this summer, but there were two outstanding books about the game. On Warne by Gideon Haigh has a philosophical, essayist title for a tract by Australia's finest cricket writer on the greatest and most flamboyant spin bowler in history.' The Times

PRH, PRH

Awards & recognition

Australian Cricket Society Jack Pollard Literary Award

Winner  •  2013  •  Jack Pollard Literary Award

The Cricket Society and MCC Book of the Year

Winner  •  2013  •  Book of the Year

Australian Book Industry Awards

Shortlisted  •  2013  •  Biography of the Year

Victorian Premier's Literary Award

Shortlisted  •  2013  •  Non-Fiction

Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature

Shortlisted  •  2014  •  Non-Fiction

National Biography Award

Shortlisted  •  2014  •  Biography of the Year

NSW Premier's Literary Awards

Shortlisted  •  2014  •  Douglas Stewart Prize

Melbourne Prize for Literature

Shortlisted  •  2015  •  Best Writing Award