Turning Over the Pebbles: A Life in Cricket and in the Mind

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Brearley lauds the fact that Stokes and McCullum don’t seem “to care too much about losing”. Would freedom from the fear of defeat be rooted in the fact that Stokes, especially, has coped with harrowing mental health problems? “Yes, I do think that has something to do with it.” We listen in at various points to Brearley’s thoughts on religion. Being a spiritual, open-minded atheist, he appreciates the many benefits of religion whilst not being personally persuaded of an afterlife or any divine ‘ultimate reality’. He wanders from Jesus to Billy Graham to Ezekiel, also introducing the analyst Donald Winnicott and his views of transitional objects. It comes as little surprise that Brearley knows and respects Rowan Williams, a previously (famously erudite and open-minded) Archbishop of Canterbury.

He laughs when I say I might suggest his new phrase of Benbuzz replaces Bazball as shorthand for England’s dangerously thrilling strategy. “You certainly can,” Brearley says in amusement. “It’s going to be fascinating, whatever happens.” Ben Stokes in the third Test against Australia at Headingley in August 2019. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The GuardianStudies show that when we reflect on past challenges, we increase our self-efficacy and resilience, thus helping us make progress and overcome challenges in the future.

Then I saw Sam Mendes’s film about Ben Stokes. I knew about the court case [when Stokes was charged with, and eventually cleared of, affray in 2017] and his father dying but suddenly you see the same thing in Stokes. He had also been depressed and he eventually overcame it by lifting the game to another level. I’m thinking particularly of the more optimistic, almost manic, side which means Stokes believes one should never play for a draw. I don’t agree as there have been some great achievements in playing for a draw and always going for the victory is a bit over the top. But that may be part of what enthused the team. I was really interested to read Stokes saying he would do the same against Australia.” Deeply thoughtful, erudite and elegantly framed, this book seamlessly blends all aspects of Brearley’s life into a single integrated narrative. With wide-ranging meditations on sport, philosophy, literature, religion, leadership, psychoanalysis, music and more, Brearley delves into his private passions and candidly examines the various shifts, conflicts and triumphs of his extraordinary life and career, both on and off the field.It sounds contrived, but Brearley’s skill as a knowing – although never self-deprecating – narrator makes it work. He admits to being regarded as an “odd fish” in a testosterone-fuelled dressing room, whether taking his blokey teammate Fred Titmus to see Benjamin Britten’s opera Peter Grimes (“Fred was taken with it”) or bearing the brunt of Geoffrey Boycott’s temper: “I don’t want any of your egghead intellectual stuff,” the Yorkshireman growled at him. Why do we do this? Well, whatever your intentions were at the beginning of a year, six months later, any one of the following could have happened: Deeply thoughtful, erudite and elegantly framed, this book seamlessly blends all aspects of Brearley's life into a single integrated narrative. With wide-ranging meditations on sport, philosophy, literature, religion, leadership, psychoanalysis, music and more, Brearley delves into his private passions and candidly examines the various shifts, conflicts and triumphs of his extraordinary life and career, both on and off the field. The psychoanalysis came later, after three years as a lecturer in philosophy. In retrospect, however, everything seemed to point towards a career in psychoanalysis. Brearley links his life experiences, his academic training, and his wide reading with this eventual profession. “This valuing of the examined life,” he writes, “is what most obviously links literature, philosophy and psychoanalysis.” In another place he says, “In moves towards complexity or simplicity, music and analysis can mirror each other.”

The title of this book comes from a remark made about Brearley’s conversational manner by an American sports journalist. Brearley, he wrote, spoke “as though he had been turning over pebbles, searching for the clearest, most precise [...] opinion to plop into the pool of conversation.” Brearley’s accounts of half a life in sport followed by another half as a psychoanalyst share that quality.You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. From 1st July 2021, VAT will be applicable to those EU countries where VAT is applied to books - this additional charge will be collected by Fed Ex (or the Royal Mail) at the time of delivery. Shipments to the USA & Canada: Yet for all those acclaimed man-management skills, this cerebral man, whose three-week stint as a carpenter’s mate was spent reading Anna Karenina, struggles with practicalities. “Making things with grandchildren is usually beyond me,” he laments.