Patrick Kidd is an English journalist, author and blogger specialising in sport generally, and cricket and rowing in particular.

Education and career

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Kidd attended Colchester Royal Grammar School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read classics.[1][2] While at Cambridge, he was a member of the P. G. Wodehouse Society and the Horatian Society.[3]

He is currently the diary editor, and was previously a sports writer, for The Times, where he has been working since 2001.[4][5] He has also written for The Spectator,[6] Wisden Cricketers' Almanack and The Wisden Cricketer. He is also a regular radio and television pundit.

The Times hosted his blog Line and Length, "A very English cricket blog". He also wrote a light-hearted personal blog, The Questing Vole, about politics, history, culture and sport, in which he described himself as "a 1920s eccentric trapped in the body of a 21st-century journalist. Not a very fetching body, either."[7] The blog takes its name from the opening of Scoop, Evelyn Waugh's satire on journalism.

Kidd's first book, Best of Enemies: Whingeing Poms Versus Arrogant Aussies, was released in early 2009. A second book, The Worst of Rugby, was published later that year. He edited an anthology of the first 50 years of the Times Diary.[4] A collection of his parliamentary sketch-writing, The Weak Are A Long Time In Politics, was published in 2019.[4]

Personal life

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He is one of three children - with siblings, Tom and Rosie. As a child, his family lived on Mersea Island, off the coast of Essex in a semi-detached villa.[8]

Kidd now lives in Eltham, London with his wife and two children, and serves as a church warden at All Saints, Blackheath, a Church of England parish church in Blackheath in London.[9][3]

Published books

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  • The Best of Enemies: Whingeing Poms Versus Arrogant Aussies, Know the Score Books, 2009 (ISBN 1848187033)
  • The Worst of Rugby: Violence and Foul Play in a Hooligans' Game Played by Gentlemen, Pitch Publishing Ltd., 2009 (ISBN 1905411421)
  • The Times Diary at 50: The Antidote to the News, Times Books, 2016 (ISBN 978-0008205522)
  • The Weak Are A Long Time In Politics, Biteback Publishing, 2019 (ISBN 9781785905339)

References

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  1. ^ Colchester Royal Grammar School Archives www.crgs.co.uk
  2. ^ Kidd, Patrick (19 February 2023). "Reflections for My Student-Aged Self". trinitycollegechapel.com. Retrieved 21 July 2024.
  3. ^ a b "Patrick Kidd | Biteback Publishing". www.bitebackpublishing.com. Retrieved 17 May 2024.
  4. ^ a b c "Patrick Kidd: Diary editor and senior writer". The Times. Retrieved 17 May 2024.
  5. ^ "Best of Enemies: Whinging Poms Versus Arrogant Aussies | the Corridor (A cricket blog)". Archived from the original on 2 February 2009. Retrieved 12 January 2009.
  6. ^ "Patrick Kidd, Author at The Spectator". The Spectator. 16 May 2024. Retrieved 17 May 2024.
  7. ^ Questing Vole About.
  8. ^ Kidd, Patrick (12 October 2017). "Story of the hurricane". The Spectator. Retrieved 17 May 2024.
  9. ^ Kidd, Patrick (15 May 2024). "The Church of England's volunteering crisis". The Spectator. Retrieved 17 May 2024.
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