The Great Tamasha is the story of modern India told through the glitzy, scandalous and mind-blowingly lucrative Twenty20 cricket tournament, the Indian Premier League.
James Astill is the political editor of The Economist. He was formerly the newspaper's South Asia Bureau Chief, stationed in New Delhi 2007-2010. He has also worked as the newspaper’s defence editor, energy and environment editor and Afghanistan correspondent. He has won several journalism awards including America’s Gerald R. Ford Prize for Reporting on National Defence, the Grantham Prize for Excellence in Environmental Reporting and a Ramnath Goenka Award for writing on India.
Astill has written a fascinating book about cricket ... But he has
also written a serious book about India whose problems are
illuminated through an extended treatment of the national sporting
obsession
*Philip Collins, The Times*
Ambitious and excellent … Astill is a lean and elegant writer ...
He is acute in observing how differently Indian and Pakistan fans
relate to their cricketers … above all, The Great Tamasha is a
cricket-lover’s book
*Gideon Haigh, The Cricketer*
A clear-sighted and superbly researched study of cricket in India …
Astill seems to have talked to everyone who is anyone involved in
this deeply unattractive business
*Sunday Telegraph*
Astill is a storyteller, and what sets The Great Tamasha apart from
the usual cricket literature is the seamless blending of politics,
sociology, economy and sports history in a narrative enriched by
drama and delightful set pieces
*S. Prasannarajan, India Today*
Engaging, perceptive and rigorous … The Great Tamasha tells a
fascinating story well. Anyone interested in India, or cricket, and
most certainly both, will enjoy it very much
*Jason Burke, Observer*
What makes Astill’s book exceptional is his first-hand reporting …
We meet powerful Indian politicians from Sharad Power, who aspired
to be prime minister and headed international cricket, to residents
of Dharavi in Mumbai, one of the biggest slums in Asia
*Mihir Bose, Independent*
The combination of reporter’s notebook, sporting history and a
descriptive style makes The Great Tamasha compelling reading
*Financial Times*
[Astill] is a daring story-teller: the book changes course with the
regularity of the Brahmaputra, turning between politics, culture,
crime, economics, celebrity and sport … Through his interviews and
reportage, you get an impression of Indian society, its people and
their concerns.
*Spectator blog*
An entertaining and important new book
*The Telegraph, Calcutta*
Astill tells expertly the story of the enthusiastic adoption of
cricket in India
*Stephen Fay, TLS*
An important and incisive new book
*NPR*
The Great Tamasha is the perfect example of a book which can
intrigue and delight as much as the latest thriller: the story of
modern India told through one of its most lucrative displays of
wealth, cricket’s Indian Premier League
*The National, Best Summer Reads*
One of the best books on cricket that I have read. Perhaps it
should not be called a book on cricket, because it is not. But
cricket is a prism through which Astill attempts to comment on the
transformation that has occurred, and is occurring, in India ...
Astill is a brilliant writer
*Surjit Bhalla, Indian Express*
[Astill] writes with solicitude – relatively rare in recent books
about “rising” India – for the also-rans, the perennially
disadvantaged and the utterly hopeless ... One gifted cricketer he
meets in a Mumbai slum is wary of the hard leather ball that “might
injure his hands, which he used to make tiny stitches on silk
saris” ... Astill brings a divertingly caustic energy to his
encounters with the successful
*Pankaj Mishra, Bloomberg*
A beautiful book
*Daniel Hodges, Daily Telegraph*
Astill’s device, using the game as a prism, is novel and
enlightening
*Asian Age*
This is an excellent book on India even if you, like I, have no
real understanding of cricket
*Tyler Cowen, Symposium Magazine*
Meticulous yet poetic
*Wall Street Journal Blog*
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
