Here’s the legendary batsman Barry Richards at the Lords Ashes Test this summer along with his biographer Andy Murtagh and Aussie coach Darren Lehmann, who joined the pair chatting with fans and signing copies of Sundial in the Shade.

The book is Andy Murtagh’s personal account of a batsman widely considered a genius lost to Test cricket – which has met with wide critical acclaim.

While the great South African batsman was over in the UK, he met up with ESNcricinfo’s Subash Jayaraman to record an interview in the popular ‘Couch Talk’ series. Listen to the podcast here, which touches on many of the themes of the wonderful book – genius, tragedy, regret and survival. Barry puts his shortened Test career in perspective, and talks about facing Bedi and batting with Pollock and Viv.

Also listen out for two forthcoming additions to the star-studded ‘Couch Talk’ series with Tim Quelch and Chris Adams, authors of Stumps & Runs and Rock ‘n’ Roll and the autobiography Grizzly.

Those who remember the 1970s are acutely aware of the travesty that the cricket world has largely forgotten Barry Richards – a cricketing genius…

• "It looks like we have an early candidate for our Book of the Year award as the game finally gets a biography of one of the greatest of all the Springboks... The strength of this book, so rare in a cricketing biography, is that as the last page is finished the reader feels not only that he knows what Richards has accomplished in life, but rather more importantly knows exactly what makes him tick. It is easy enough to regurgitate a serious of facts, quite another to uncover a man's attitudes to life, the universe and everything." --CricketWeb.net
• "A fascinating read." --Cricket365.com
• "Barry Richards' batting was based on textbook principles from which he would at times depart as only a genius can. So it is with Murtagh's writing. The prose is never dull, the language never emasculated – yet Murtagh plays his shots as if in T20 mode. A very good read." --The Cricket Statistician
• "This is a wonderful read and his former team mate at Hampshire, Andrew Murtagh, has done a fine job. Life has presented its challenges to Barry Richards, but the author avoids none of them and the subject takes the opportunity to exorcise some personal demons. I would heartily recommend the latest addition to Pitch Publishing's fine portfolio. Read it, and like me remember one of the greatest batsmen of the twentieth century." --Peakfan Blog
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Click here for more information, or to read a free sample from Sundial in the Shade – The Story of Barry Richards: the Genius Lost to Test Cricket