Interview - Robin Daniels: Cardus: A man of words and a man of wisdom

Sir Colin Davis puts it best in the foreword to Robin Daniels's book, Cardus: Celebrant of Beauty.

Davis writes: "In the history of British journalism, there has been only one writer so evocative and respected, and so widely quoted, in two suchdiverse fields as cricket and music.

"The name Neville Cardus still stirs affection in the hearts of lovers of music and cricket, and anyone who cherishes the art of fine and enduring English prose. For Cardus, an art and a sport were entirely compatible pleasures in a rich and many-sided life."

As the cricket season opens, it is a perfect moment to reflect once more on the work of Cardus, the man who elevated writing about both cricket and music out of simple reportage and into the sphere of literature.

Robin Daniels's book, which will be celebrated on Test Match Special when it returns this summer, is a memoir to a man who began as a hero and became a friend.

Daniels was a student when he first came across the name Cardus.

"When I was young, I was a literary wasteland, a desert," says Daniels, now a practising analyst and author.

"I was brought up in America with stories of cowboys and indians and comic books."

Moving to England when he was 11, Daniels discovered the delights of literature through the vehicle of the stories of Biggles and Sherlock Holmes.

An early school essay about his favourite book was not well received – a teacher told him to spend less time with adventures and more time with literature.

"One day, I borrowed a copy of the Manchester Guardian and came across a review of a classical concert of Brahms – a composer I had barely heard of – and the review used words I didn't understand, like crescendo," says Daniels.

By the time Daniels discovered Cardus, he was already a legend within journalism. The young reader was as struck by Cardus's ear for writing as thousands of others and set to seeking out the journalism of the cricket writer and music reviewer.

"He was a great opener of doors," says Daniels.

The young man began following in his hero's footsteps, teaching himself about music and cricket and voraciously reading all of Cardus's work.

He began attending concerts and writing his own reviews of the events.

When he was 18, Daniels wrote to "the master" with some of his own reviews – and Cardus replied.

"I was thrilled that the Master had got in touch with me, and I wrote back again," says Daniels.

Cardus generously invited the enthusiastic young man to tea at the National Liberal Club in London.

"I walked through the door with a big smile, and there he was," says Daniels.

"I sat with him and we talked, although really I just listened, entranced. He spoke as eloquently and beautifully as he wrote.

"At one point, I noticed that the other people in the room were inching their chairs closer to get the chance to overhear this great man."

A friendship blossomed between the two, despite an age difference of many years – Cardus was in his seventies when the 19-year-old Daniels met him.

Daniels said: "He was a great teacher. I think he found in me a sense of his youth and I was blessed to have the opportunity to learn from him."

As their friendship deepened, Cardus and Daniels collaborated on a book. With Daniels recording his friend and teacher, the resulting conversations became the 1976 book, Conversations with Cardus.

Now that he is older and wiser himself, Daniels has returned to the work of his friend to take another look at the subject.

"The book is exactly what it calls itself, a celebration of the great man," says Daniels."I started writing it as a new introduction for

the first book on the 20th year of its publication. I started writing and found myself with 30 pages of notes that I wanted to say about him.

"I had so many new things to say about him that I found the book growing and growing and realised that this was going to be an entirely new book."

Published last year, it has been relaunched this season and Daniels is working on a documentary about the book with Radio Four.

Daniels spoke to a number of people while writing this latest book and was delighted, if not surprised, to find that Cardus lives on through his extraordinary writing.

"It is a great sadness that he didn't get to see Flintoff play. How I would love to have read his thoughts on him," says Daniels.

Instead, in the foreword to Daniels's book, we get to read Flintoff's thoughts on Cardus and reflections from other people, the range of which perhaps best demonstrate how extraordinary Cardus was as a writer – pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, conductor Sir Colin Davis and former president of the MCC Dennis Silk all contribute.

Cardus: Celebrant of Beauty, 25, direct from the publisher at www. carnegie publishing.com or telephone 01524 840111.

NEVILLE CARDUS

1888: Cardus was born in Rusholme, Manchester. After attending a local board school for five years, Cardus left, aged 13. In his spare time, he read widely and became self-taught in literature, philosophy, and the arts.

1912: He was appointed assistant cricket coach at Shrewsbury School in Shropshire, leaving in 1916. Rejected for military service because of his short-sightedness, Cardus briefly wrote for the socialist paper, The Daily Citizen. He successfully applied for a junior post on the staff of the Manchester Guardian. In 1919, he became the paper's cricket correspondent.

1927: Cardus became the paper's principal music critic and retained his cricket role. Cardus visited Australia to report on England's cricket tour of 1936-1937, later writing a book on the series – Australian Summer.

1940: he moved to Sydney to work for the Sydney Morning Herald.

1949: He returned to live in London, and wrote for The Sunday Times, having covered the 1948 Ashes series. He moved to the Evening Standard, where he was soon unhappy at the shortage of space allocated to his music reviews.

1951: rejoined the Manchester Guardian as its London music critic and occasional cricket writer. He toured Australia to cover England's cricket tours of 1950-1951 and 1954-1955. He continued to write for The Guardian for the rest of his life and also wrote some articles for The Sunday Times. He died shortly before his 87th birthday.