by Mayukh Ghosh
October 28, 2008.
Lord's.
Launch of John Barclay's book Life Beyond the Airing Cupboard. Published by Stephen Chalke's Fairfield Books.
A months or so back, a collection of Jim Kilburn's writings were published. Edited by Duncan Hamilton. It caught Stephen Chalke's eyes.
Here Chalke finds Marcus Williams of The Times.
Chalke: "The book I'd really like to publish is a collection of Alan Gibson's writing. His articles and match reports. They're the very best."
Williams: "It's funny you should say that. His son's just written to us, with exactly that idea."
Chalke: " And what have you replied? Are you going ahead with it?"
Williams: "No, sadly we're not. But we did tell him that we'd look out for a publisher for him."
A few days later Anthony Gibson finds himself sitting in Stephen Chalke's kitchen.
They agree on everything they discuss.
Anthony proposes an added dimension: he will write some biographical passages about his father.
A year later it is ready.
A collection of the writings of Alan Gibson between 1967 and 1986, mostly for The Times but also for The Cricketer magazine.
And a few unpublished gems as well.
Of Didcot And The Demon was published on October 28, 2009.