In between the famous yellow covers of the 150 or so editions of "Wisden Cricketers' Almanack", there is a lot of pages devoted to cricket, as one would expect, but those yellow covers have also covered history, including the decline and fall of the British Empire, wars, the sinking of the Titanic, the suffragette movement. They are all covered in the obituary section of "Wisden".

"Peter the Lord's Cat" includes some of the more unusual and surprising obituaries, including my favourite, Kenneth Gandar-Dower, the explorer who introduced cheetah racing to England, as well as Victor Eberle, who wrote his name into the history books when he dropped AEJ Collins on 20 during Collins's famous innings of 628 not out, and Bob Crisp, war hero, adventurer, mink farmer, hermit and founder of a popular newspaper for black South Africans.

Opening on any random page finds any number of surprising entries, including page 21, featuring Ted Bishop, who found fame for liberating the Singapore Cricket Club from the Japanese in 1945. Bishop found a bloodstained cricket bat on the club steps and used the bat for many years afterwards. We also find that King George VI was considered the best royal cricketer since Frederick, Prince of Wales in 1751. No word if George VI has been dwarfed in ability by any royals since. ( )