Bonus 2 - ACD and Literary Cricket, with Ollie Randall

In the second of our bonus episodes, Mark talks with historian and author Ollie Randall about his book Writers in Whites: How a group of literary cricketers changed English culture (London: Fairfield Books, 2026) which is released today.

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Ollie Randall

Ollie Randall is a writer, historian and cartoonist. He completed his doctoral thesis, 'Cricket, Literary Culture and Englishness' in January 2026, which has become the basis for his book Writers in Whites (2026). Ollie has written articles for a variety of publications, including The Sherlock Holmes Journal, and most frequently the Times Literary Supplement. He has worked as the historical researcher for a former leader of the House of Lords, and as a tour manager on cultural tours. His second book, Lord’s and Maharajas – about the political intrigue and imperial crisis that shaped the origins of Indian international cricket – is due out in Autumn 2026.

Next time on Doings of Doyle…

For our 75th regular episode, we cover one of Conan Doyle’s most important early stories, ‘J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement’ (1884). You can read the story here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/wiki/J._Habakuk_Jephson%27s_Statement 

Acknowledgements 

Thanks to our sponsor, Belanger Books (www.belangerbooks.com), and our supporters on Patreon and Paypal.

Image credits: Thanks to Alexis Barquin at The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia for permission to reproduce these images. Please support the encyclopaedia at www.arthur-conan-doyle.com.

Music credit: Sneaky Snitch Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 

YouTube video created by @headlinerapp.