John Lazenby's interest in cricket began as a boy with a glimpse of his grandfather's old leather cricket bag stored in the rafters. His curiosity piqued, he explored its contents to discover a faded blazer, scuffed ball and linseed-scented bats. Decades later, when he found a box of letters written by his grandfather, J. R. Mason, on the boat to Australia for the Ashes tour, John was inspired to retrace the journey. John's tour through the Australian cities and remote towns visited by England cricketers over a hundred years ago uncovers a wealth of anecdotes and memorabilia. His narrative vividly evokes not only Mason and his teammates, but a wider sense of late Victorian mores at home and abroad.