Tim de Lisle is the only rock critic to have edited Wisden. He wrote for Smash Hits and Harpers & Queen magazines as a teenager before taking a degree in Classics and joining The Daily Telegraph, where he was a reporter, feature writer and rock critic. He became a cricket writer overnight in 1990 with the launch of The Independent on Sunday - "they tried some big names, who all said no, so they were a bit desperate". In the middle of Graham Gooch's famous 154 against West Indies in 1991, de Lisle was shunted across to edit the paper's arts pages. He reverted to cricket in 1996 as editor of Wisden Cricket Monthly. He modernised the magazine, which was still being put together on paper, with cowgum, in a semi-detached house on the outskirts of Guildford. He was named Editor of the Year 1999 (Special Interest Magazines) by the British Society of Magazine Editors, and along with the deputy editor, Steven Lynch, he nurtured a string of young writers including Simon Briggs, Lawrence Booth, Tanya Aldred and Rob Smyth. After four years, he switched to the internet, launching wisden.com. In 2003 he edited Wisden Cricketers' Almanack during Matthew Engel's sabbatical, and introduced a number of changes, the most radical being the use of a photograph on the cover for the first time in the book's 139-year existence. One critic wrote that he had "dragged Wisden kicking and screaming into the 1920s". He now writes on the game for The Times as well as having a fortnightly column on Cricinfo and doing features for The Guardian. He is rock critic of The Mail On Sunday and has his own website.. In 2007 he signed up to write Young Wisden, the first children's book in the company's history.
Cricinfo staff