Melbourne Books acquires women’s cricket nonfiction title

Melbourne Books has acquired world rights to Full Corset and Stockings: A History of Women’s Cricket by historian and musician Craig Horne.

‘Full Corset and Stockings details the history of women’s cricket in England and the game’s evolution as it moved to Australia, sharing the unknown stories of professional English and Australian players such as Emily Whatman (mother and childhood trainer of men’s cricket legend Don Bradman), left-arm bowler Peggy Antonio, and the author’s own mother, Nesta Williams,’ said the publisher. ‘Horne shines a light on the influential women of a historic Australian sport.’

Melbourne-based author Craig Horne has worked as a public servant, speech writer and archaeological surveyor, as well as a musician in blues and roots band The Hornets. His most recent historical nonfiction title is Line of Blood: The Truth of Alfred Howitt (2023, also Melbourne Books).

Horne said of the acquisition: ‘Full Corset and Stockings was written as a tribute to my mother, Nesta Williams (Horne), a champion right-arm off-spin bowler from the golden age of women’s cricket, the 1930s. The book is not only a deep dive into the origins of the women’s game in the villages of 15th-century England, but also a fundamental examination of the social, political and economic forces that determined how women’s cricket evolved and who got to play the game both in Britain and Australia.’

Publisher David Tenenbaum said, ‘We all know the story of Don Bradman hitting a golf ball with a stump against the family water tank in Bowral – but I was fascinated to learn it was his mother, Emily Whatman, a talented inter-colonial representative women’s cricketer in the 1890s, who bowled her left-arm seamers to him every afternoon after school!’

Category: Local news Rights and acquisitions