Suresh Menon has been a mentor, a friend, and the first name in the acknowledgments for The Fire Burns Blue. We’ve been lucky to benefit from his decades of experience in sports writing – and his spontaneous gifts of books he uncovers at Bookworm or his own beautiful personal library! His encouragement (not always gentle!) gave us the confidence to write this book. So, to read his opinion at the end of it is humbling.
The marvellous economy, the telling detail and the research implied in that short sentence make for a wonderful introduction to the book. The qualities are sustained through this, the first history of women’s cricket in India. It is, in fact, the finest book written on cricket history in India, men’s or women’s.
The Hindu, Dec 25, 2018
The best writers contextualise their words in society, history and philosophy. This is especially important for sport. CLR James, in his seminal Beyond a Boundary, which uses West Indies cricket as a canvas for social commentary, had tweaked Rudyard Kipling’s “What do they know of England who only England know?” to “What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?” Suresh is one such special writer, whose work has always reflected the bigger picture. And I’m delighted that he thinks our book reflects this same philosophy.
This consciousness of context gives the book the feel of a Renaissance painting – where the background and foreground are both in focus; there is both depth and detail here. It means when the large issues are discussed, they gain significance in the story of the individual, while an individual’s story illustrates a bigger point.
The Hindu, Dec 25, 2018
Read his review in full.
