CONNIE

(Abacus £10.99) THE cricket commentator John Arlott thought the Trinidadian cricketer Learie Constantine ‘must be made from springs and rubber’.

Few who saw him would forget the experience: playing for the West Indies against Middlesex at Lord’s in 1928, Constantine hit a century in 59 minutes, including a stroke that ricocheted off the weather vane on the Grand Stand.

Connie (as he was always known) was born in 1901. His parents were descended from slaves; his father was also a first-class cricketer.

This prize- winning biography celebrates Connie’s outstanding achievements as the most dynamic all-round cricketer of his age, a campaigner for racial equality and the first black person to sit in the House of Lords.