My eye was caught by a headline in yesterday’s Guardian - “Liquidating the borders between fact and fiction”. I immediately thought of Sir Neville Cardus, whose writing is described in Christopher Martin-Jenkins’ Dictionary of World Cricketers as “challenged in the authenticity of facts and recollections”.
In fact, the article referred to the legendary Polish war reporter Ryszard Kapuscinski. A newly-released biography of the author of The Soccer War and Imperium makes accusations of “extending the boundaries of reportage far into the realm of literature”.
But it could have been Cardus. John Arlott euphemistically described his cricket writing as ‘the literary-appreciative approach into the reporting of sport”. Michael Kennedy, in Barclays World of Cricket, was more direct - “he has been accused of wandering from the strict path of truth”.
The great man wasn’t bothered. When accused of inventing quotes from the great Lancashire batsman Dick Tyldesley, Cardus said “To realize the truth of his nature and being, it simply had to be said. Whether he himself said it, or whether I put the words into his mouth for him, matters nothing…”
Perhaps these latest revelations about Kapuscinski are more serious. While Cardus boasted of writing an article in Wisden almost every year between 1951 and 1975, Kapuscinski said he had “witnessed 27 revolutions, been sent to jail 40 times and survived four death sentences”.
“The reader pays a price for romanticism”, sums up Martin-Jenkins. Whatever the cost, it’s still wonderful to read.
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