On a swing and a prayer

The sharp tap of the willow against a parched, sun-baked turf. The murmuring tension of a crowd thrumming with anticipation, holding its breath, waiting.

- AMRITESH MUKHERJEE

A rhythmic runup, a fluid leap, as a confident right arm quick strides in, the ball an extension of his will, swinging it precisely and to his will. It's a familiar scene for millions of cricket fans who've watched James Anderson bowl in a career lasting over two decades with 704 test wickets.

To put that into perspective, that's an entire century of wickets more than the next best fast bowler in Test cricket: Stuart Broad.

But behind that composed figure delivering spell after spell with unerring accuracy was years of toil and setbacks, a journey captured in Finding the Edge, co-written with Felix White. There's a certain elegance to cricket writing when done well, matching, if not exceeding, the beauty of the game itself. Think Shehan Karunatilaka's Chinaman, a fictional biography of a cricket journalist in search of an elusive chinaman bowler or Beyond a Boundary by CLR James, tying cricket to the real-world, to racial and class divisions along with the various interconnections the sport carries with itself. Much like Anderson's best deliveries, Finding the Edge lands perfectly—unforced, sharp, precise.