The Homage has been nominated for the Cricket Book of the Year Award. NASSER HUSSAIN was, by his own definition, a fiery cricketer. He brought passion to a game often associated with relaxed days and picnic hampers. As England captain he astonishingly dragged English cricket from the bottom towards the top. But nothing became him like his leaving of it. His last year was beset with media sniping at his place in the England side. Fans watched with held breath as the famous grit and bloody-mindedness took the field. It was a drama of a sporting hero conquering enemies on and off the field, fear of humiliation, and time itself. S.J. Litherland repays his passion by making him her muse for a season. Her cycle of poems The Homage was written in the heat of the action. As Hussain travels to redemptive triumph, she travels with him as a poet, and also journeys her own path towards forgiving a tyrannical father, the man who taught her to love cricket.