Customer Reviews
An absolutely splendid read - By: Neil Ford, 26 Jun 2007 
Blowers is a national institution. Henry Blofeld seeks to distance self a little from Blowers the claret guzzling, cake munching, wisecracking, clubbable cricket commentator on BBC Test Match Special. Not everyone can claim to be the son of James Bond's implacable enemy, yet this seems to have no obstacle to the young Henry's , a promising cricketing career (a Cambridge blue no less) tragicallly cut short as a result of an accident with a bus !. One wonders if that explains his fascination with helicopters, buses & pigeons ? Anyway, failing to get on in the City Henry takes up the craft of journalism, & makes a successful career for himself in the newspapers & later to become a much loved figure on Radio & TV. Blofeld in interviews & in these memoirs is not quite the ebullient character who fills the radio waves on an English summer. We find a sensitive soul, a cooly determined professional, a master of his craft carefully honed in the shadows of EW Swanton & John Arlott. Blofeld writes moving about his heart operation, his happy marriage, his disabled stepson, his love of PG Wodehouse & the pleasures of family life. That he's made such an imprint on the game of cricket its fitting that he can write such an attractive memoir & reveal a little more of himself to his adoring public. My dear old thing, thank you!
Blowers is no joke - By: , 19 Sep 2001 
Henry Blofeld has developed his 'my dear old thing' persona rather a la Brian Johnston, maybe to differentiate himself from other cricket commentators. But in this autobiography, we see the full person - in turn suave, scathing, generous, amusing & loving - but always readable, erudite & knowledgeable. His story has a twist at the end, & the description of his illness is beautifully told. This isn't one of those name-dropping autobiogs. It is an interesting & personal account of a life of a cricket writer, & worth reading by anyone who loves the game.
