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Mark Peel Biography

Mark Peel

After Harrow and Edinburgh where he read History, Mark Peel taught History and Politics at Fettes between 1983-2007.

A keen biographer, his first book, England Expects: A Life of Ken Barrington, was published in 1992 and won the Cricket Society's Literary Award for the best cricket book of the year.


He followed this with biographies of the England cricketers, Colin Milburn and Colin Cowdrey, the maverick headmaster, Anthony Chevenix Trench, the Methodist minister and pacifist, Donald Soper, and more recently the former Labour minister and co-founder of the SDP, Shirley Williams.

Author Details:

Author News

  • Two further cricket biographies to Pitch 27 Feb 2023

    Pitch have bought world rights in two further cricket books by Mark Peel – Yorkshire Grit: The Biography of Ray Illingworth and Gilly: The Turbulent Life of Roy Gilchrist

  • Jardine biography short listed for Sports Book Awards 03 Jun 2022

    Congratulations to Mark Peel who has been short listed for the Sports Book Awards for Never Surrender: : The Life of Douglas Jardine.

  • Douglas Jardine biography to Pitch Publishing 04 Feb 2021

    Pitch Publishing have bought world rights in Mark Peel’s biography of cricketer Douglas Jardine

  • Mark Peel short-listed for Cricket Book of the Year 15 May 2019

    Congratulations to Mark Peel whose Playing the Game? Cricket’s Tarnished Ideals from Bodyline to the Present has been short-listed for the Telegraph Cricket Book of the Year.

  • Two cricket titles to Pitch Publishing 29 Mar 2019

    Pitch Publishing have bought World English rights in Mark Peel’s next two cricketing titles - Cricketing Caesar: The Biography of Mike Brearley and ‘The Hollow Crown: The England Cricket Captaincy from 1945 to the Present.

  • Mark Peel short-listed for Cricket Society/MCC book award 19 Mar 2019

    Congratulations to Mark Peel whose Ambassadors of Goodwill, MCC tours 1946/47-1970/71 is among the six titles short-listed for The Cricket Society and MCC Book of the Year Award. The winners will be announced at Lord’s on Tuesday 16 April .

  • Ambassadors of Goodwill short-listed for the Cricket Society Book of the Year 12 Nov 2018

    Congratulations to Mark Peel whose Ambassadors of Goodwill: On tour with the MCC 1946-71 has been short-listed for the Cricket Society Book of the Year

  • Two cricket titles to Pitch Publishing 26 Oct 2017

    Pitch Publishing have bought World English rights in Mark Peel’s Playing the Game? : The Ethics of Cricket from Bodyline to the Present and Ambassadors of Goodwill: On tour with the MCC 1946-71.

  • Mark Peel in The Times 28 Oct 2013

    This weekend’s Times carried a feature on Mark Peel’s fascinating book on the 14th Duke of Hamilton, The Patriotic Duke.

    Duke ‘knew nothing of Hess’s extraordinary peace flight’ (£)

  • Daily Mail extracts Shirley Williams: The Biography 19 Oct 2013

    Mark Peel’s fascinating new biography of Shirley Williams for Biteback is extracted in the Daily Mail.

    Skinny dipping, 12 marriage proposals… the rather racy past of Shirley Williams, the dazzling flirt who could have been Britain’s first woman PM

  • Mark Peel writes for Celebrate Scotland 14 Oct 2013

    Mark Peel has written a piece for Celebrate Scotland on the life of the 14th Duke of Hamilton, the subject of Mark’s forthcoming book The Patriotic Duke, which will be released by Thistle Publishing at the end of October.

    The Patriotic Duke

Author's Books