The sight of England thrashing it out with Australia in the Ashes is once again starting to grip the nation. With many sports lovers, young and old, dreaming of cricketing heroics, the release of Simon Rae’s exciting new novel, Unplayable, could not be more timely. Rae is the award-winning author of ‘the best biography of WG [Grace] ever produced’ (Christopher Martin-Jenkins) and this is his first cricket novel. 

 Unplayable follows school boy Tom Marlin and his meteoric rise through the cricketing ranks. His journey involves danger, controversy, heart-break and heroics, culminating in the chance to help win England the Ashes. When Tom is ‘scrunched’ on the football field by the school bully, Devlin, he needs a major operation on his shoulder. He comes out of hospital with his shoulder repaired – and the miraculous gift of being able to turn a cricket ball miles – a gift that transforms his life. 

 The book’s foreword is written by Ashes winning captain and Chance to shine Ambassador, Mike Gatting, who describes the ‘Ball of the Century’ he faced from Shane Warne during the first Ashes Test in 1993 – his own experience of playing the unplayable. Gatting says: “Unplayable is a great story that will appeal to anyone of any age, who has ever dreamed of coming to his country’s rescue against the old enemy... I wish Unplayable all the success it deserves.”

 Rae has chosen the Cricket Foundation charity’s Chance to shine campaign as a beneficiary of Unplayable. Chance to shine is the single biggest sports development programme ever undertaken in Britain and aims to bring cricket – and its educational benefits – to two million children in a third of state schools by 2015. 

 Wasim Khan, Chief Executive for the Cricket Foundation says: “Chance to shine is breathing new life back into state schools’ cricket, while helping to educate thousands of children through cricket. We are delighted that Simon has chosen to support Chance to shine and hope that Unplayable will encourage even more children to take up the sport.”