Book excerpt: David Frith's revised and updated autobiography, 25 years on from the acclaimed 1997 story of his decades at the heart of cricket: a story of wartime, two-way emigration, playing, watching and writing about cricket past and present: the controversies, the sweeping research, the friends (and enemies), the great occasions, and closeness to the Arlotts and Bradmans and hordes of others. This is cricket from the central hub and a human story like no other.It is terrific . . . a love story, a search for cultural identity . . . meditation on how cricket can be so informative of one's sensibilities . . . Frith's mastery of his subject is astounding and sometimes hilarious . . . This is not a comfortable 'thanks for the memories' book, but Frith's has not been a comfortable life. That is the price one pays for fearless honesty and self-knowledge. Gideon Haigh