Turning back the clock, affordably

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1928 Willows £63 + £4 p&p

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1929 Willows £66 + £4 p&p

John Lillywhite's Cricketer's Companion 1865, Roger Heavens, £50 + £3 p&p

Alongside the plethora of new books, including life stories by players with all of five or six seasons under their belt, there is a steady cottage industry turning out reprints of old publications, whose scarcity has taken their prices out of the realm of affordability for most collectors - even if they become available.

Wisden, 145 editions old and in rude health, is undoubtedly the most famous cricketing book, known by millions across the world as the bible of the game, even if many of those people have probably never read a copy. Pre-World War Two editions go for hundreds of pounds, originals from the turn of the century can easily top £1000, and if you are after anything from the 19th century, be prepared to dig deep.

Fortunately for those of limited resources, the Willows Publishing Company in Staffordshire has, under the stewardship of David Jenkins, been turning out limited-edition reprints of the Almanacks since the early 1980s. The latest reprints available are those from 1928 and 1929, with 1930 to follow in November 2008.

As with all the previous books, these are high-quality reproductions of the originals in hardcloth and paper wrappers. For collectors they are about perfect: the only giveaways are the pristine condition and the small "reprint" embossment on the cover.

The 1928 Wisden looked back on a wet summer - though not wet enough to prevent Wally Hammond scoring almost 3000 runs. And to prove that cricket administrators love nothing more than a tinker or two, radical plans to bring forward the start time of matches from mid-day to 11.30am to increase playing time were mooted. The 1929 edition chuntered about the quality of West Indies' cricket, as well as the imbalance between bat and ball on increasingly flat pitches. An age ago but largely the same themes as today.

Less well known but even scarcer books are the almanacks produced by John and James Lillywhite in the latter years of the 19th century. Known to collectors as Green (John) and Red (James) Lillys on account of the respective colour of their bindings, these come to the market infrequently. Roger Heavens, a well-known and respected author and publisher from Cambridgeshire, has "done a Willows" and had a limited run of the first edition of the Green Lilly produced.

Issued in 1865, a year after Wisden first hit the bookstands, it has none of the randomness of the early Wisdens, which often seemed to cover as much trivia as they did cricket. Lillywhite was unabashedly about the game, and as such is a much better read for a flavour of cricket as it was when poised to become a global game. As with the Willows reprints, the quality cannot be faulted.

Cricket lovers and bibliophiles alike should be grateful that the hard work of gentlemen such as Jenkins and Heavens means that otherwise inaccessible works of history are within most people's budgets. Given the time and effort it takes to produce such small runs of high-quality publications, they are very reasonably priced as well.

The Wisdens are limited to 500, the Lillywhite to 100.

Willows Publishing Company, 17 The Willows, Stone, Staffordshire, ST15 0DE. Email
Roger Heavens, 2 Lowfields, Little Eversden, Cambridgeshire, CB23 1HJ. Email