Neville Cardus

On 17 June 1921, he got married to Edith King, an actress and art teacher by profession. The marriage lasted 47 years, till the death of his wife. They had no children and often didn’t live together.

He died at Nuffield Clinic located in London on 28 February 1975 at the age of 86. He had collapsed at his residence a few days earlier but the exact reason behind the death is unknown.

Neville Cardus was born in Rusholme in Manchester, England on 3 April 1888 to Ava Cardus. The identity of his father is unknown. His mother got married to a blacksmith named John Frederick Newsome when she was pregnant but the marriage did not last long and she returned to her father’s house. His mother turned to prostitution in order to take care of the household expenses.

He was enrolled at a school run by the school board in his area and the education imparted by the school was not up to the mark. Gradually, he developed a liking for writing. His first published work appeared in ‘The Boy’s World’ magazine when he was still at school.

He quit school after studying there for only five years but he developed a healthy appetite for reading and writing. After the demise of his grandfather in 1900, he started working in different odd jobs, including that of a clerk and at the same time immersed himself in reading literary, philosophical and scientific books of the time. He attended classes at Manchester University and also played cricket whenever he could in the club circuit.

Following a few stints in the Manchester cricket league circuit, he applied for the job of the assistant cricket coach at the Shrewsbury School located in Shropshire country and started the job in 1912. He worked there for four years and finished as the headmaster’s secretary. He also worked as a music critic for the Manchester based publication named ‘Daily Citizen’.

In 1917, he applied for a job at ‘Manchester Guardian’ newspaper and was initially employed in an unpaid position. However, he showed his ability as a writer quite early and within a year he was given the charge of a column. A year into the writing job, he was made the junior drama critic. However, it was the position of music critic that he coveted most.

In 1919, he was asked to cover a cricket game for the first time and his very first report was on a game played between Lancashire and Derbyshire. A year later, he was made cricket correspondent of the ‘Manchester Guardian’, a position that he would go on to hold for the next two decades. His reports were published under the byline ‘Cricketer’. The same year, he became the deputy of the chief music critic to Samuel Langford and seven years became the chief music critic.

Throughout the 1920s, he covered cricket games involving Lancashire and particularly the county’s games against rivals Yorkshire. His language and style became hugely popular during that time, as his intimate style struck a chord with readers. He went to Australia in 1936 as a correspondent to cover the Ashes series.

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, he found himself without a job and in 1939, upon the invitation of Sir Keith Murdoch he started to work for ‘Herald’ and his first assignment was to cover a tour by Sir Thomas Beecham. Subsequently, he moved to ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’ in order to work as a music writer. He lived in Australia for eight years during which he wrote the book ‘Ten Composers’ and ‘Autobiography’. He also covered the 1946-47 Ashes cricket series for ‘Sydney Morning Herald’, ‘The Times’ and ‘The Manchester Guardian’.

Other than his considerable body of work on cricket, which is regarded as the best cricket writing by most, his autobiographical works titled ‘Autobiography’, ‘Second Innings’ and ‘my Life’ are considered among his finest works.