There can be a strong strain of self-parody in even the greatest commentators. When Henry Blofeld describes the progress of a pigeon in his inimitably plummy tones, or greets a visiting Ocker to the commentary box with a jovial ‘My dear old thing!’, he is impersonating himself as surely as Rory Bremner has ever done.
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Available from the Spectator Bookshop £16, Tel: 08430 600033. Tom Holland is a novelist and historian, and a member of the Authors Cricket Club.
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