This excellent book by Geoff Lemon and Adam Collins, writers, broadcasters and podcasters, offers 22 fascinating and intriguing episodes from cricket history's colourful past. The book has incidents from the history of the game, which have been described in detail.

In the introductory chapter, the writers say they have encountered historical characters who are fascinating, or hilarious, or enraging, or tragic. "We've learned so much about the game that has made us better writers and commentators than we would ever have been without it. Our stories have gone from 30-second guesses to 30-minute discursions, digging through birth-record archives, ancient newspapers, libraries of books, and the full collection of Wisden. And we've had a ball doing it.

At the time of writing, Story Time stands at well over 200 episodes and thousands of tales. Its listeners made that happen. And the thing we're surer of now than ever is that however long the show lasts, we will never run out of cricket stories. There are more being written all the time."

In the very first chapter Dera to Dream: Cricket's Biggest Defeat, according to the writers, cricket is a brutal sport. Moments of triumph and glory seduce players into sticking with the game. But those times are remembered so clearly because they're so few. For each high, there are a hundred lows: bad shots, bad luck, long and horrible shifts in the field. Still, most of us don't have our worst day immortalised by the record-keepers.

I thoroughly enjoyed going through the chapter on Charles Marriott, one of the best leg break and googly bowlers of his era, whose eleven wickets (5/37 + 6/59) cost 8.72 runs apiece vs West Indies at The Oval in 1933, in the only Test played by him and whose 711 first-class wickets (ave 20.11) in 159 matches exceeded his career runs (574 at 4.41). The writers say that on the distinguished list of cricketers with more wickets than runs, CS Marriott sits right next to New Zealand's Chris Martin, a celebration both of sporting ineptitude and the willingness to keep on trying.

Bedtime Tales for Cricket Tragics brings together the stories they enjoyed telling most, such as the 1879 riot in Sydney sparked by an umpire's call, the all-rounder who tried to rob the Catholic Church, the biggest defeat in history, and much more.

Beautifully written and well organised, Bedtime Tales for Cricket Tragics is highly recommended to every age group wholeheartedly.