- Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man by Siegfried Sassoon
Siegfried Sassoon, one of the most notable poets in English Literature during the First World War, produced ‘’Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man’’- an autobiographical novel which was first published by Faber and Faber in 1928. Even though, it happens to be an autobiographical account of the author, the characters in the novel have been assigned pseudonyms, including Sassoon himself who appears as George Sherston. Primarily concerned with a series of landmark events in Sherston’s childhood and youth, ‘’Memoirs of a Fox Hunting Man’’ traverses through numerous warm moments. Cricket creeps into the narrative in the form of ‘The Flower Show Match’- an account of an annual village cricket game. The match between Batley and Rotherden is reminiscent of a typical English rural society that was kept oppressed during the First World War. Young Sherston enthusiastically whitens his pads with ‘’Blanco’’ upon knowing that he has been selected to play for Batley. The match embodies a few hilarious incidents in procession. A cricket frenzied cleric called Pastor Yelden is done in by a ‘’vicious yorker’’ which rattles his stumps, one of Yelden’s teammates fumbles with straps and buckles when he gets to know of Yelden’s dismissal.Sherston eventually plays a crucial part in the match. The ‘’Flower Show match’’ is an evocation of cricket on the village green and has an unceasing appeal to its readers who are mostly schoolchildren. The story concludes with the protagonist’s enlistment in a local regiment.
