The Ashes - the biennial battle between England and Australia -  is the most celebrated rivalry in international cricket and stirs the emotions of each nation’s fans like no other form of the game.

The series is named after a satirical obituary published in The Sporting Times in 1882 after a match at The Oval in which Australia beat England for the first time on English soil.

The obituary stated that English cricket had died and  ‘ the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia ‘. The media dubbed the next English tour to Australia as the ‘quest to regain The Ashes’ and the greatest contest in the cricketing calendar was born.

This informative book traces the complete history of the contest including England’s sensational victory in 2005 when Michael Vaughan’s valiant team only completed a thrilling series win on the final day at the Oval.

England, under the leadership of Andrew Strauss, repeated the feat in 2009, and further rubbed salt in the Aussie wound with their first victory in Australia for 24 years in 2010/11 with Alastair Cook scoring a staggering 776 runs in the series.

All the legendary heroes -  from Don Bradman to Shane Warne and Ian Botham to Freddie Flintoff - as well as the modern-day superstars such as Kevin Petiersen, James Anderson and Graeme Swann are featured in this fact-filled compendium to the greatest cricket contest on earth.