By fans, for fans

JB's Cricket Companion by John Boxsell $7

There are plenty of deadly-serious Ashes publications on the market but a more light-hearted guide to the summer is JB's Cricket Companion. The second edition, released in November, features background stories, ground details and player profiles for the Ashes and the triangular one-day series featuring Australia, England and New Zealand.

The tongue-in-cheek tone is first set by Australia's foreign minister Alexander Downer, who penned the introduction. "Modern Australia, as I am sure you are aware, was founded when England needed to find a place to transport its most undesirable elements," Downer writes. "With another English cricket tour about to land on Australia's shores, it is pertinent to note that little seems to have changed."

The $7 price-tag, desktop-publishing feel and occasional typos make it not the most professional guide - the player profiles refers to Monty Panesar as "Penesar" - but after such an impolite introduction it is patently not trying to be. A picky reader might insist that Brad Hodge's bowling is clearly offspin and not right-arm medium, but in general the profiles are useful snippets for the armchair cricket-watcher, with some fun descriptions. Daniel Vettori, the book claims, "can assess a batsman's weakness quicker than a Danny Morrison innings".

Its ground and city descriptions include some of the most essential information for travellers following the cricket - beer sizes in each state. A 285ml beer in Sydney and Perth, for example, is a "middy", but in Melbourne and Hobart it is a "pot" and in Adelaide a "schooner". You won't learn that from the ABC Ashes magazine. Just don't expect JB's Cricket Companion to be the most impartial publication in your Ashes collection.