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Sir John Frederick Neville Cardus (2 April 1889–28 February 1975) was a writer and critic, best known for his writing on music and cricket. Cricket is a bat-and-ball team Sport that originated in England and is now played in more than 100 countries For many years, he wrote for the Manchester Guardian. The Guardian (until 1959 The Manchester Guardian) is a British Newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group.

Contents

Early years

Cardus was born in Rusholme, Manchester. Rusholme is a part of Manchester, in North West England, about two miles south of Manchester city centre. His date of birth is the subject of much conjecture. A letter published in The Times during April 1988 claimed that, after his death, it was discovered that he was born in April 1888; Yehudi Menuhin was involved in marking his birth centenary in 1988. Yehudi Menuhin Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE (April 22 1916 – March 12 1999 was an American -born Violinist and conductor who spent Cardus was illegitimate and never knew his father. He lived with his mother, Ada Cardus (1870–1954), who was described as a "genteel prostitute", in the house of his maternal grandfather, an ex-policeman. [1] After attending a local board school for five years, Cardus left at thirteen and took on various jobs before he being employed as a clerk in a marine insurance firm in December 1904. In his spare time, he read widely and became self-taught in literature, philosophy and the arts. [2] Admiring the critics who wrote about music and theatre for the Manchester Guardian, he consciously attempted to adopt their writing style. [1]

From his earliest years, Cardus was drawn by the twin attractions of cricket and music. In 1912, he was appointed as the assistant cricket coach (to Walter Attewell and, later, Ted Wainwright) at Shrewsbury School in Shropshire. Ted Wainwright (or Edward Wainwright; born April 8 1865, Tinsley, Sheffield, Yorkshire, England; died October Shrewsbury School (formally known as King Edward VI Grammar School Shrewsbury) is an public school, located in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, [3] There, he came under the influence of the headmaster, Cyril Alington, who appointed him as his secretary in 1914. Cyril Argentine Alington (1872&ndash1955 was an English educationalist scholar cleric and prolific author Rejected for military service in World War I because of his short-sightedness, Cardus briefly wrote for the Daily Citizen instead. [1]

Cricket and music critic

When Alington moved to Eton in 1916, Cardus also felt the need to move on. Eton College, or just Eton, is a world-famous British Independent school for boys founded in 1440 by King Henry VI. Year 1916 ( MCMXVI) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year He successfully applied for a junior post on the staff of the Manchester Guardian, now calling himself Neville: his articles were attributed to NC. [1] The editor, C. P. Scott, recognised Cardus’s talent and rapidly promoted him to the post of second-string theatre critic, and in 1919 he became the paper's cricket correspondent. Charles Prestwich Scott ( 26 October 1846 &ndash 1 January 1932) was a British journalist publisher and politician On 17 June 1921 at Chorlton, Manchester, Cardus married teacher Edith Honorine Walton King (1881-1968). Chorlton-cum-Hardy is a suburban area of the City of Manchester, North West England, known locally as Chorlton. Cardus described her as, "a great spirit and character, born for sisterhood not marriage". [1] In 1927, Cardus became the paper’s principal music critic after Samuel Langford's death, and retained his cricket role. Cardus later said, "to be paid to watch cricket at Lord’s in the afternoon and hear Lotte Lehmann as Strauss’s Marschallin in the evening, was nothing less than an act of Providence". Lotte Lehmann ( February 27, 1888 &ndash August 26, 1976) was a German Soprano

Cardus attracted a wide readership, writing as "Cricketer". John Arlott wrote: "Before him, cricket was reported . Leslie Thomas John Arlott ( February 25, 1914 &ndash December 14, 1991) was a freelance author whose main subjects were sport and wine a poet . . with him it was for the first time appreciated, felt, and imaginatively described". His prose, rich with allusions to music and poetry, made folk heroes of the players. Similarly, his approach to music was intuitive and personal, rather than academic and technical. [1] He covered concerts in London, Vienna and Salzburg, and mixed with leading musicians and composers. Vienna ( in Wien; see also other names) is the Capital of Austria, and is also one of the nine States of Austria. is the fourth-largest city in Austria and the capital of the federal state of Salzburg.

Move to Australia

Cardus visited Australia to report on England's cricket tour of 1936–37, later writing a book on the series titled Australian Summer. He visited the country again in 1938. At the onset of World War II, he feared losing his job so he accepted an offer from Sir Keith Murdoch to cover a tour of Australia by Sir Thomas Beecham, arriving in February 1940. Sir Keith Arthur Murdoch ( August 12, 1885 - October 4, 1952) was an Australian Journalist and the father of Rupert Sir Thomas Beecham 2nd Baronet, CH (29 April 1879 &ndash 8 March 1961 was a British conductor and Impresario. Employed by Melbourne's The Herald, Cardus found that he could not review concerts for an evening paper, so he moved to Sydney to work for the Sydney Morning Herald. He helped to lift the standard of musical criticism in Australia. [1]

On ABC Radio, he hosted an hour-long program, "The enjoyment of music", which enlarged the audience for classical music across the country. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly abbreviated to the 'ABC' is Australia's national public broadcaster. He also gave a weekly, ten-minute talk on music, illustrated by records, for the children's Argonauts' Club program and regularly wrote on music and cricket for the ABC Weekly. [1] Early in 1942 Cardus rented a small flat at Kings Cross where he was joined by his wife. There he wrote Ten Composers (published 1945), which included an acclaimed essay on Gustav Mahler, an autobiography (published 1947) and Second Innings (published 1950).

Return to London

Cardus permanently left Sydney in 1949 and returned to London. He rejoined the Manchester Guardian in 1951 as its London music critic and occasional cricket writer. He toured Australia to cover England's cricket tours of 1950–51 and 1954–55. He was appointed CBE in 1964, knighted in 1967, became an honorary member of the Royal Manchester College of Music in 1968 and an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in 1972. The Royal Northern College of Music or RNCM is a conservatoire in Manchester, England. The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a well known conservatoire and one of the leading music institutions in the world His most personally valued honour was the presidency (1971–72) of the Lancashire County Cricket Club. Lancashire County Cricket Club is one of the eighteen major county clubs which make up the English domestic Cricket structure representing the historic He published eleven books on cricket and nine on music.

A non-establishment figure

"Slight, lean and bespectacled, with a gnome-like appearance in his last years, Cardus was a familiar sight at Lord's or the Garrick Club, pipe in mouth and book under arm". Roger Covell called him a, "marvellous raconteur and monologuist with his all-weather overcoat". [1] Cardus was never an "establishment" figure. Hart-Davis and G. W. Lyttelton encountered strong resistance when they sought to get him elected as a member of the MCC, and Cardus himself came to feel like an outsider at The Guardian. George William Lyttelton (6 January 1883 &ndash 1 May 1962 was a British teacher and littérateur Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC is a private members' club founded in 1787 However, he was always highly regarded by professional cricketers (like Don Bradman) and by the greatest musicians: he managed to maintain close friendships with Sir Thomas Beecham and Sir John Barbirolli, though the two conductors cordially disliked one another. Sir Donald George Bradman, AC (27 August 1908 – 25 February 2001 often referred to as The Don, was an Australian Cricketer widely Sir Thomas Beecham 2nd Baronet, CH (29 April 1879 &ndash 8 March 1961 was a British conductor and Impresario. WikipediaWikiProject Classical music#Biographical_infoboxes --> Sir John Giovanni Battista Barbirolli, CH ( 2 December

After his death, Alan Gibson summed up Cardus's impact on cricket writing:

All cricket writers of the last half century have been influenced by Cardus, whether they admit it or not, whether they have wished to be or not, whether they have tried to copy him or tried to avoid copying him. Norman Alan Stanley Gibson (28 May 1923 at Sheffield, Yorkshire – 10 April 1997 at Taunton, Somerset) was an English journalist writer and He was not a model, any more than Macaulay, say, was a model for the aspiring historian. But just as Macaulay changed the course of the writing of history, Cardus changed the course of the writing of cricket. He shewed what could be done. He dignified and illuminated the craft. [4]

The best of his cricket pieces were published in several volumes by Rupert Hart-Davis, but much of his writing on music–which he himself regarded as his more important work–has not been reprinted in book form. Sir Rupert Charles Hart-Davis ( 28 August 1907 – 8 December 1999) was a British Publisher, literary editor, When the childless Cardus died on 28 February 1975, his obituary article in The Guardian took no fewer than three eminent writers to write it: J. B. Priestley, Hugo Cole and John Arlott. John Boynton Priestley, OM ( 13 September, 1894 &ndash 14 August, 1984) was an English Writer and broadcaster Leslie Thomas John Arlott ( February 25, 1914 &ndash December 14, 1991) was a freelance author whose main subjects were sport and wine a poet More than 720 people attended his memorial service at St Paul's, Covent Garden. [4]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Australian Dictionary of Biography: Cardus, Sir John Frederick Neville (1888–1975).
  2. ^ Wisden, 1965 edition: Neville Cardus — thousands more enjoying the game through his writing.
  3. ^ Cardus himself referred to William Attewell, but according to Walter Attewell's obituary in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack he was mistaken: Supplementary Obituaries, 1994 edition
  4. ^ a b Wisden, 1976 edition: Sir Neville Cardus — a tribute.

Bibliography of works

Cardus published Autobiography in 1947; his other books include:[1]

Works on cricket:

Anthologies/collections:

Works on music:

References

See also

List of works by cricket historians and writers

External links

This page summarises the entries in:categoryCricket historians and writers.
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