The World Cricket Show-Interview with Dr Dean Allen Author "Empire and Cricket"

Interview with the author about Dr Dean Allen’s Cricket, War and Empire in South Africa which is a unique social history of the workings of the British Empire in South Africa during the late nineteenth century. Allen offers an original historical account of the significance of Matjiesfontein and its founder James Douglas Logan. This work reveals the true story of the involvement of Logan and Matjiesfontein leading up to and including the Anglo-Boer War.

Cecil Rhodes is on record as saying he had only met two creators in South Africa, one being himself and the other James Douglas Logan. Born in Reston, Scotland in 1859, Logan emigrated to South Africa at the age of nineteen. This book explores how Logan made his fortune in nineteenth century South Africa through business, politics and a high profile association with the British Empire’s favourite sport – cricket. Unique photographs and documents from the Logan family archives, many of which have never been published before, form an integral part of the publication.

A native of Somerset in the West Country of England, Dr Dean Allen’s long association with South Africa began in the mid 1990s when he began his studies at Stellenbosch University. Currently a lecturer in Sport Management at Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Dean has taught at Universities in South Africa, Australia, Northern Ireland and England and is widely published in the areas of sports history and sociology. It was during research for his Masters Degree that Dean first visited Matjiesfontein and a fascination for the history of cricket and this region led to a PhD that was completed in 2008. His book Logan of Matjiesfontein - Cricket, War and Empire is the result of that doctoral study.

Publisher is Penguin Random House (Zebra Press)