Black Swan Summer: The Improbable Story of Western Australia’s First Sheffield Shield

Black Swan Summer tells the extraordinary story of Western Australia’s first season of Sheffield Shield cricket, when an unheralded group of unknown, unfashionable and inexperienced players won Australian cricket’s biggest prize at their first attempt. But it’s more than just a story of an upset result in a cricket competition. It’s a chronicle of the summer in which Don Bradman scored his 100th century, India toured Australia for the first time and the country plunged into political turmoil - which not everyone noticed, because they were at the cricket. The book explains the connections between men who returned from war to play cricket, the fear of communism, Mahatma Gandhi, rationing, Keith Miller, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, Ray Lindwall’s back foot and a boxer called the Alabama Kid. Drawing on the personal reminiscences of the last three surviving cricketers from the 1947/48 season, it brings that hot, wet summer vividly to life.