Letting Rip by Simon Wilde

Letting Rip (First Edition in Pictorial Dust Jacket)

A Shortlisted History of Cricket's Fast-Bowling Threat, from Lillee and Thomson to Waqar Younis

Bibliographic Specifications

• Title: Letting Rip: The Fast-Bowling Threat from Lillee to Waqar
• Author: Simon Wilde
• Publisher: H. F. & G. Witherby, London
• Publication Date: 1994
• ISBN-13: 9780854932429
• ISBN-10: 0854932429
• Edition Details: First Edition, first published in Great Britain in 1994.
• Binding: Publisher's dark green cloth boards with a pictorial dust jacket.
• Physical Format: Octavo-size hardcover, illustrated with black and white photographic plates.
• Language: English

Official Condition Report

• The Book: Very Good Plus (VG+)
• Exterior / Boards: The plain dark green cloth boards are clean, with square corners and a straight spine. The spine and lower edges of the boards are clean, and the top edge of the text block is clean.
• Interior: The pages are clean and cream-coloured, with no foxing, marks or writing. The binding is tight, and the plate pages are clean.
• The Dust Jacket: Present. The pictorial cricket photograph on a green ground is clean and bright, with slight light scuffing or rubbing to the front panel. The green spine and plain green back panel with barcode are clean. The jacket is protected in a durable archival-type plastic cover.

Synopsis & Historical Value

Letting Rip: The Fast-Bowling Threat from Lillee to Waqar, published in London in 1994, is Simon Wilde's history of fast bowling in cricket from the 1970s to the early 1990s. It follows the bowlers who made batsmen fear the new ball, among them Dennis Lillee, Jeff Thomson, Curtly Ambrose and Waqar Younis.

Wilde is as interested in the contest as in the bowlers. He looks at how batsmen such as Viv Richards coped with sheer pace, and at the psychology of facing it. The book opens by placing the reader at the crease against an imagined, fearsome four-pronged pace attack.

The book was shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year. This first edition is illustrated with black and white photographs and is a worthwhile copy for collectors of cricket literature.

Author Profile: Simon Wilde

Simon Wilde, born in 1960, is an English cricket journalist and author. He began at Wisden Cricket Monthly as assistant editor to David Frith, then joined The Times as a sub-editor and later became chief sub-editor of sport. He has been cricket correspondent of the Sunday Times since 1998.

His other books include Ranji (1990), Caught (2001), Ian Botham: The Power and the Glory (2011) and Chasing Jessop (2025). Three of his books have been shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year, Letting Rip among them.

Letting Rip Simon Wilde · fast bowling cricket history · Lillee to Waqar book · first edition cricket book 1994 · William Hill shortlisted cricket book · Simon Wilde cricket author