Politics aside - and as a child of mining communities, it is fair to assume that I have never been confused with a Thatcherite - the main issue with the book is that there are sizeable sections that have no real relevance to cricket.
As a social history it is a decent read and took me back to the year which was my first summer north of the border, also a momentous one for Derbyshire, of course.
I think it could have done with a little more primary research, as the book deals with how other writers perceived the two very different 'giants' of the time. There was the opportunity, given the recency of events, to get the thoughts of contemporaries of both, which wasn't taken.
There were parallels, as the author points out, in the careers and fortunes of the two main protagonists, but I wouldn't recommend this one as a cricket book alone. The Ashes series has been covered by others many times and cricket fans would be better off with one of the many other volumes.
Yet as a social history of more recent times, it is a worthwhile read.
Something Changed: Beefy, Boadicea, Brixton, Bunting and How Cricket Helped Change The Nation is written by Ben Dobson and published by Pitch Publishing
