The Ashes 1938 series was shared between Wally Hammond’s England and Don Bradman’s Australians. And the next Ashes Test would be played only in 1946-47, after the last bullet of the Second World War had been fired. However, one further Ashes encounter was played during this interlude, on the fictitious pitch of a hilarious novel written by Adrian Alington published in 1939.  Arunabha Sengupta describes the book which should be in the collection of every lover of literature and cricket.