Six

(Paperback, Main)

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I knew it was the beginning of something.
My first match. History in the making -
the way history turns in the air like a coin -

Cricket was a major part of the poet Zaffar Kunial's childhood when growing up near the Edgbaston cricket ground in Birmingham. This pamphlet gathers six of his new poems on the subject, along with a series of previously published 'Extras'. Whether capturing legends of the sport, such as Imran Khan captaining his first Test match, or a shy encounter with Brian Johnston; the poet's boyish ambitions of becoming a professional player; experimenting with time in an elliptical sequence on hours at the Oval; or the timeless still point of a hit ball - Six is a collection for lovers of poetry and cricket alike.

Author Bio

Zaffar Kunial was born in Birmingham and lives in Hebden Bridge. He published a pamphlet in the Faber New Poets series in 2014 and spent that year as the Wordsworth Trust Poet-in-Residence. Since his first public reading, of 'Hill Speak' at the 2011 National Poetry Competition awards, he has spoken at various literature festivals and in programmes for BBC radio, and won the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize for his poem 'The Word'. His debut collection, Us, was published in 2019.