David Foot (24 April 1929 – 25 May 2021) was a British journalist and historian who wrote extensively on English

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

and the

West Country The West Country is a loosely defined area within southwest England, usually taken to include the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Bristol, with some considering it to extend to all or parts of Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and ...

. Foot was born in the

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

village of

East Coker East Coker is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England. Its nearest town is Yeovil, to the north. The village has a population of 1,667. The parish includes the hamlets and areas of North Coker, Burton, Holywell, Coker Marsh, Darvole, ...

, living as a child in a cottage without electricity or running water, and spent most of his life in Somerset and

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

. He began his journalistic career with the ''

Western Gazette The ''Western Gazette'' is a regional newspaper, published every Thursday in Yeovil, Somerset, England. The newspaper and digital operation is based at the Yeovil Innovation Centre. History The ''Western Gazette'' was founded in 1863 in Yeov ...

'' in

Yeovil Yeovil () is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Somerset, England. It is close to Somerset's southern border with Dorset, west of London, south of Bristol, west of Sherborne and east of Taunton. The population of the bui ...

before moving on to the '' Bristol Evening World'', where he was the drama critic, at this time cricket being only a minor part of his writing. After the paper closed in 1962 he worked largely as a

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

, and even appeared as an extra in the TV series '' Softly, Softly''. In the national press he contributed primarily to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' from 1971 to 2011, writing chiefly on

and

cricket, together with some football reports and theatre reviews. He also wrote a weekly column for the ''

Western Daily Press The ''Western Daily Press'' is a regional newspaper covering parts of South West England, mainly Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Somerset as well as the metropolitan areas of Bath and North East Somerset and the Bristol area. It is published Mon ...

'' for about 20 years. According to Scyld Berry, he was one of the last regional writers. It was "not only the quality of his work, but the speed" with which he wrote that was remarkable.Scyld Berry, "'Footy' cast a light on secret torment of a cricketer's life", ''The Daily Telegraph'', page 24, 12 June 2021. Foot's book ''Beyond Bat & Ball'' won the Cricket Society’s Book of the Year award in 1993. Reviewing it in ''

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

'', Geoffrey Moorhouse agreed with the opinion of Dennis Silk in the book's foreword that as a writer Foot "is as good as Robertson-Glasgow at his best". Silk also said: "If the cricket lover is not quite clear about why he loves the game, he will become much clearer after reading this book." The sport journalist

Frank Keating Francis Anthony Keating II (born February 10, 1944, as David Rowland Keating) is an American attorney, politician and a former FBI special agent who served as the 25th governor of Oklahoma from 1995 to 2003. , Keating is one of only five gover ...

called Foot's biographies of

Harold Gimblett Harold Gimblett (19 October 1914 – 30 March 1978) was a cricketer who played for Somerset and England. He was known for his fast scoring as an opening batsman and for the much-repeated story of his debut. In a book first published in 1982 ...

and

Wally Hammond Walter Reginald Hammond (19 June 1903 – 1 July 1965) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Gloucestershire in a career that lasted from 1920 to 1951. Beginning as a professional, he later became an amateur and was appointed capt ...

"imperishable classics in cricket's canon". Before Gimblett committed suicide, he had entrusted to Foot the tapes he had recorded about his cricket career. By incorporating quotations from those tapes in his biography and revealing Gimblett's mental anguish, Foot "removed our rose-coloured spectacles about cricket" and helped to enable other cricketers such as Peter Roebuck and

Marcus Trescothick Marcus Edward Trescothick (born 25 December 1975) is an English former cricketer who played first-class cricket for Somerset County Cricket Club, and represented England cricket team, England in 76 Test cricket, Test matches and 123 One Day In ...

to speak out about their own mental problems. According to Berry, Foot was "fascinated by every aspect of life". This was illustrated by his taking on the editorship of the memoir of Victoria Hughes, a lavatory attendant who took care of the prostitutes who worked at the lavatories on Bristol Downs. Berry says this was one of Foot's most valuable books. He was "the dearest and most decent of men, because he had acute sensibility for people, and trees, and words". Foot lived in the Bristol suburb of

Westbury-on-Trym Westbury-on-Trym (sometimes written without hyphenation) is a suburb in the north of the City of Bristol, near the suburbs of Stoke Bishop, Westbury Park, Henleaze, Southmead and Henbury, in the southwest of England. The place is partly na ...

with his wife Anne. They had a son and a daughter. He died in May 2021, aged 92.

Books

* ''Game for Anything'' (1972; David Foot with Alan Gibson and Derek Robinson) * ''Ladies' Mile'' by Victoria Hughes (1977; edited) * ''Gardening My Way'' by John Abrams (1978; edited) * ''Famous

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

ians: And Others Having Strong Associations with the City'' (1979) * ''Viv Richards'' by

Viv Richards Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards (born 7 March 1952) is a retired Antiguan cricketer who represented the West Indies cricket team between 1974 and 1991. Usually batting at number three in a dominant West Indies side, Richards is widely ...

, with David Foot (1979, 1982) * ''From

Grace Grace may refer to: Places United States * Grace, Idaho, a city * Grace (CTA station), Chicago Transit Authority's Howard Line, Illinois * Little Goose Creek (Kentucky), location of Grace post office * Grace, Carroll County, Missouri, an uni ...

to Botham: Profiles of 100 West Country Cricketers'' (1980) * ''Zed: Zaheer Abbas'' by

Zaheer Abbas Syed Zaheer Abbas Kirmani PP, (in Punjabi and Urdu: سید ظہیر عباس کرمانی; born 24 July 1947), popularly known as Zaheer Abbas, is a Pakistani former cricketer. He is among the few professional cricketers who used to wear spect ...

, with David Foot (1983) * ''

: Tormented Genius of Cricket'' (1984) * ''Learn Cricket with Viv Richards: A Young Player's Guide'' by Viv Richards, with David Foot (1985) * ''Cricket's Unholy Trinity'' (1985) * ''Sunshine, Sixes and Cider: The History of Somerset Cricket'' (1986) * ''Viv Richards'' (1987) * ''Country Reporter'' (1990) * ''40 Years On: The Story of the

Lord's Taverners The Lord's Taverners is a UK youth cricket and disability sports charity. Its charitable objective is to empower and positively impact the lives of young people facing challenges of inequality. Lord's Taverners was founded in 1950 by a group ...

'' (1990) * ''Strange Dorset Stories'' (1991) * ''Somerset Cricket: A Post-War Who's Who'' (1993; with Ivan Ponting) * ''Beyond Bat & Ball: Eleven Intimate Portraits'' (1993) * ''

: The Reasons Why: A Biography'' (1996) * ''Fragments of Idolatry: From " Crusoe" to Kid Berg: Twelve Character Studies'' (2001) * ''Shep: My Autobiography'' by David Shepherd, with David Foot (2001) * ''Sixty Summers: Somerset Cricket since the War'' (2006; with Ivan Ponting) * ''Footsteps from East Coker'' (2010) * ''Footprints – David Foot’s Lifetime of Writing'' (2023; collected and edited by Stephen Chalke)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foot, David 1929 births 2021 deaths Cricket writers English journalists People from South Somerset (district) 20th-century English historians English biographers 20th-century British journalists 20th-century British biographers 20th-century English male writers 21st-century British non-fiction writers 21st-century English male writers