Fibber in the Heat By Miles Jupp Release date: 01st July, 2013 Publisher: Ebury Press List Price: £8.99 Our Price: £6.29 You Save: £2.7 (30%) Buy Now

Most of us recall our childhood initiation into sport, a period approached with a modicum of caution, though laden with wonder. Your reviewer was permitted entry into football’s strange, cult-like world at an early age, but Miles Jupp, author, comedian and former Balamory actor, was baptised as a member of cricket’s equally arcane brotherhood. Jupp’s wonderfully vivid description of this protracted introduction sets the tone for his hilarious, laugh-out-loud sporting tome, Fibber in the Heat. The period during which he started to understand cricket’s language was one when he also “found great pleasure in analysing the statistics...I would read the [match] preview...then monitor the score cards...like a lunatic on the end of a rope. I spent entire days just doing this.” Jupp’s comedic background is evident throughout his descriptive asides. Following a brief jaunt through his childhood, the reader is quickly ushered towards the book’s focus, namely Jupp’s fleeting non-career as a cricket journalist. After watching the 2005 Ashes series, he annexes himself from the hellish grasp of Cbeebies’ show Balamory in order to become one of the “lucky b******s who watch cricket all day for a living.” However, realising that his lack of journalistic experience equates to a no ball when it comes to writing about cricket, Jupp devises a Clousseau-esque plan: he will imitate them instead, clothes n’all. Of course, as it would in a Pink Panther movie, his master plan eventually falls flat, although this doesn’t bother Jupp one iota. His brief time in the employment of BBC Scotland and The Western Mail is dotted with quirky references and anecdotes which illustrate the idiosyncrasies of the cricketing press; Jupp’s awkward adjustment to the game’s written language only intensifies the comedy. Despite this, ahem, professional setback, Fibber is an easy book to read, thanks primarily to the fact that Jupp is a fine comedic writer, capable of maintaining a light, observant tone throughout what is an extremely funny book. A triumph.