All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this content in any form or by any means. Acknowledgements

“emember that any book always involves about twice as much work as you first think,” Matthew Engel, the former Wisdeneditor told me when I agreed to try to condense the story of 316 England–Australia Test matches into one volume of reasonably sensible length. His wise words hit home forcibly about halfway through the task, as another 10,000-word tour review loomed out of the yellow pages of history. But, by wielding the computer equivalent of the red pen with Zorro-like abandon (and largely ignoring my father Brian, visiting from Australia, for which I apologise), Wisden’s story of the Ashes did eventually fit between these reassuringly yellow covers. That it does so owes much to my colleagues Christopher Lane, Scyld Berry, Hugh Chevallier and Harriet Monkhouse of Wisden, not least for tolerating my temporary absence from an even smaller and fatter yellow book; to Charlotte Atyeo and Nicky Thompson of A&C Black, and their design team; the typesetters at Palimpsest; and, last but certainly not least, my wife Karina, who put up with my rare appearances outside the office and still supplied tea and cake, while our son Daniel also tried to help, in between trying to eat the cake. Thanks are also due to the many Wisden contributors over the years whose work is reprinted here, and to Sir Alec Bedser for providing such a thoughtful Foreword. Perhaps the biggest round of applause, though, should go to the successive generations of English and Australian cricketers who have made the Ashes what they are – the most famous rivalry in international sport.

Most of the illustrations are from Getty Images, with some from the editor’s private collection. The photograph of the Hon. Ivo Bligh was kindly provided by his great-grandson, Rupert Peploe. The Records section was compiled by Philip Bailey.

STEVENLYNCH

Dates to the right of the headings – often following the name of the writer – when shown refer to the edition of Wisdenin which the extract first appeared. For example, the 2005 Ashes series was covered in Wisden 2006.

All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this content in any form or by any means.