Simon Jones

I can’t think of an England player that every supporter and player would  have loved to see more with the three lions on his chest. Simon was  right up there with the best that I was fortunate enough to captain.

What a player, what a man. Simon was the unsung hero in the 2005 Ashes.  His crucial wickets and aggression took us over the winning line.

Simon Jones only played eighteen Test matches, but to me and most  England fans he will always be a legend. His bowling during the 2005  series, against the best Australian team in history, was simply  magnificent: fast, furious, swinging both ways like a deranged  boomerang, and devastatingly successful. A class act.

Exceptional... reminiscent of a mud-and-grit David Peace novel.

[A] brutally honest rollercoaster of an autobiography

Numerous of the protagonists who took part in the 2005 Ashes have written books – but nothing half as gripping or revelatory as Simon Jones’s account

It is one of the most striking cricket autobiographies of recent times

The Test is one of the best [books] you are ever likely to read about that landmark series, or indeed any series… an essential read for all cricket fans

An absolutely cracking read, brutally honest, visceral, edge-of-the-seat stuff

Beautifully written, and brutally honest , memoir…provides a fascinating insight into the occasional highs and all too frequent lows of a professional sportsman’s life.

My Life, and the Inside Story of the Greatest Ashes Series

Winner of the Wisden Book of the Year 
 
Eighteen years, eight series, eight defeats. These are the facts. I look around the room. We’re a young team. Strauss, Flintoff, Vaughan, the new guy, Kevin Pietersen. None of us remember England holding the Ashes. We are a generation that have grown up in Australia’s shadow. 
 
In 2005 Simon Jones took part in the greatest Ashes series of all time. As a devastating fast bowler in a brave young England team, Jones went toe to toe with the might of the seemingly unbeatable Australians. Over the course of fifty-four days Simon would experience the greatest highs of his career, and plunge to the lowest depths. The series would change his life for ever. 
 
In chapters that alternate between an unforgettable, insider's account of each of the five Tests and the remainder of his life, Simon presents the raw and unvarnished truth behind international sport; the joy and the sacrifice, the physical and mental cost and the unrelenting pressure. Heroes emerge, and cricketing legends are made human.

Simon Jones

Praise for The Test

I can’t think of an England player that every supporter and player would have loved to see more with the three lions on his chest. Simon was right up there with the best that I was fortunate enough to captain.

What a player, what a man. Simon was the unsung hero in the 2005 Ashes. His crucial wickets and aggression took us over the winning line.

Simon Jones only played eighteen Test matches, but to me and most England fans he will always be a legend. His bowling during the 2005 series, against the best Australian team in history, was simply magnificent: ...

I can’t think of an England player that every supporter and player would have loved to see more with the three lions on his chest. Simon was right up there with the best that I was fortunate enough to captain.

What a player, what a man. Simon was the unsung hero in the 2005 Ashes. His crucial wickets and aggression took us over the winning line.

Simon Jones only played eighteen Test matches, but to me and most England fans he will always be a legend. His bowling during the 2005 series, against the best Australian team in history, was simply magnificent: ...

I can’t think of an England player that every supporter and player would have loved to see more with the three lions on his chest. Simon was right up there with the best that I was fortunate enough to captain.

What a player, what a man. Simon was the unsung hero in the 2005 Ashes. His crucial wickets and aggression took us over the winning line.

Simon Jones only played eighteen Test matches, but to me and most England fans he will always be a legend. His bowling during the 2005 series, against the best Australian team in history, was simply magnificent: ...

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