Which is more exciting, flying a Spitfire, or receiving your first cricket book from the publisher?
The late BBC cricket commentator Christopher Martin-Jenkins told the annual dinner of The Cricket Society and the MCC Book of the Year Award a few years ago how he was quite overwhelmed when his first book came out.
“I was so excited when the first copy arrived from the publishers, I said to my wife, ‘Did you ever in your wildest dreams believe that I’d become an author?’ My wife looked at me and said, ‘Christopher, I have to tell you that you’ve never been in my wildest dreams’.”
Hang on a moment. The political pundit John Sergeant told a similar story a few weeks ago about being at the controls of a Spitfire while making a film about the great wartime fighter plane. Did Mrs Sergeant ever imagine in her wildest dreams that she’d see him in the cockpit of a Spitfire? She apparently said exactly the same thing.
