Cardus: Celebrant of Beauty

Neville Cardus was born in Rusholme, Manchester in 1888. He was the first music critic to be knighted, the most evocative - and most often quoted - writer on cricket of all time, and one of the great English essayists of the 20th century. It is hard to believe that so majestic and cultured a writer left school at the age of 13. For more than half a century, he wrote about music and cricket for the Manchester Guardian. His first senior editor was the legendary C P Scott. His first literary editor - also mentor - was C E Montague, a distinguished writer and drama critic. Cardus wrote 21 books: 10 about cricket, eight about music, and three volumes of autobiography. Cardus was a friend of cricketers (Don Bradman and Keith Miller), writers (J M Barrie and J B Priestley), actresses (Flora Robson and Wendy Hillier), and musicians (Beecham, Barbirolli, Menuhin, Arrau, Schnabel, Ferrier and Lotte Lehmann). Although he spent the last years of his life in London, he retained his love of Lancashire. He was honoured by the Halle Orchestra, and served as president of Lancashire County Cricket Club.