Out of It - 25th anniversary collector's edition

Michael O’Leary’s Out of It was first published in 1987.

  Since then it has become a New Zealand cult classic and is possibly the only New Zealand literary cricket novel published here.

  The novel conjures a surreal cricket game between New Zealand and an invitation Out of It XI at Eden Park, Auckland, in dadaist and modernist prose in the Irish-Mäori tradition.

   This new 25th anniversary collector’s edition, edited by cricket poetry anthologist and poet Mark Pirie, adds amendments to the first edition along with appendices, including a full scorecard of the Out of It innings, notes, an interview with the author and a bibliography of New Zealand cricket fiction and poetry.

   25 years on, Out of It, as Pirie writes in the foreword, ‘remains a highly imaginative, original and colourful read.’

‘If you are a collector of Bohemian cricket memorabilia, this book is for your shelf. It is certainly a boon to te kirikiti o Aotearoa...’– Rangi Faith

‘O’Leary has ... the demeanour of a cricket umpire – when he says it’s out then it’s out. He can also lob an impressive ball down a pitch as he can play a riff à la Hendrix on any available instrument.’ – Gregory O’Brien

About the Author and Editor

Michael O’Leary (b. 1950) is a well known Paekakariki-based bookshop proprietor, publisher, novelist, poet and performer. His numerous publications include several volumes of poetry from HeadworX: Toku Tinihanga: Selected Poems 1982-2002, Make Love and War, Sounds of Sonnets (with Mark Pirie) and Paneta Street. In 2011 his words were set to music by local Kapiti Coast musicians on the CD, Fences Fall. He is publisher for Earl of Seacliff Art Workshop, an established independent publisher of contemporary New Zealand poetry and fiction.

Mark Pirie is a New Zealand poet, editor, writer and publisher. In 2010, he edited the anthology of NZ cricket poetry A Tingling Catch and currently writes its offshoot blog TinglingCatch.

Photo of Michael O'Leary by David McGill, 2009"