A Daily Dose of Ashes Cricket: #AshesIllustrated

Exciting News... The new book, 'The Ashes Illustrated', will be available from Amazon from Friday 27th September!

“The summer of 2019 brought cricket fever to the nation. Not since the incredible 2005 Ashes summer have we witnessed scenes like these.. What a fantastically memorable season it has been - A nail biting World Cup win at Lord’s over New Zealand in a super over, and the showpiece Ashes Series in the second half of the summer. 

This book, ‘The Ashes Illustrated’, is a collection of cartoons, illustrations and caricatures of the characters of the Ashes summer by Patrick Latham. This collection of daily pencil sketches, covering every day between the first day at Edgbaston to the last day at the Oval, was completed with the aim of recording the main events of the series from a slightly different perspective. 

The collection serves as a collection of memories from an incredible summer and series. It is a perfect gift for anyone whose imagination was captured by the players and events of English cricket in 2019!

After completing a similar challenge for the last Ashes Series in Australia, ('Ashes by Candlelight'), we wanted to bring you an illustrated daily diary recording the events of every day's play, as well as those days in between tests, with an alternative and occasionally mildly amusing view of the characters of the series. In this book, you will find over 50 original cricket cartoons, caricatures and illustrations which detail how the story of the 2019 Ashes unfolded, from the first ball at Edgbaston to the final wicket at The Oval with every day in between having its own image lovingly drawn in pencil by Patrick Latham.

To find out more about the book, and to purchase your own copy, please visit Amazon.co.uk

How I got started

Over the course of the 2017/18 Ashes Series in Australia, I started drawing daily 10-15 minute cartoons with the subject relating to something that had happened during the day.

As I began to share these cartoons on social media, there was an increased interest and the pressure rose to continue to complete the daily cartoons of the series both on and off the field. That set of 50-60 cartoons were compiled in book form and given the title, ‘The Ashes by Candlelight’, on account that whilst the matches were being played overnight in UK, I was up scribbling away listening to events unfold on the radio. Sadly, this was not such a memorable series for the England team.

I had hopes of documenting a nailbiting series that swung back and forth, culminating in a tense decider in the 5th test in which England chased down an unlikely target on a raging up and down turner, 9 down in the last over with Jimmy Anderson hitting Mitchell Johnson back over his head for 4 to win the Ashes. Sadly The Ashes went to Australia all too quickly in the series, however for prosperity’s sake, the book is still available on Amazon which features a cartoon and caption every day from the first ball of the 1st Test to the last ball of the 5th Test, including that ugly presentation ceremony….

The humorous cartoons are again reflective of events of the day, and are a mixture of cartoon illustrations and caricatures of Ashes players and characters involved. All finished in pencil, and this time all included in a sketch book, the images take between 10 – 30 minutes to complete. At the end of the series, the illustrations will all be compiled into a book that will again be available on Amazon.

Enjoy!

PL