Our very own Peter Grant’s fascinating book is now available to download.

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‘Conventional and Unconventional Cricketers – A Social History of Kennington Cricket Club’ was released in 2004 and features a foreword by ex-Kent and England player, Lord Colin Cowdrey.

Peter Grant was born in Ashford in 1955. His parents’ home is next to Kennington Cricket Club for whom his father, C.J. ‘Twiz’ Grant played from 1950 to 1977. Peter made his debut for the club in 1967 and has made over 700 appearances for the club.

From 1987 to 1994 Peter was Director of the London Community Cricket Association, promoting the game in inner London’s most deprived areas. During this time he was also Development Director of the London Cricket College that produced a number of first class players such as Keith Piper and Adrian Rollins.

In 1995 he joined Sport England’s Lottery unit and latterly became Head of Public Affairs and Development. He supervised many cricket related projects including the Radcliffe Road development at Trent Bridge.

In 1999 Peter became Director of Operations for the New Opportunities Fund. Among the £4.5 billion programmes he managed were the People’s Network (connecting all UK libraries to the Internet), Healthy Living Centres, Out of School Hours activities, Veterans Reunited and the £750 million investment in school sports facilities.

In 2004 Peter was appointed Senior Visiting Fellow at the Cass Business School of City University London running the world’s first post-graduate courses in grant making and he also acts as consultant to the government and Lottery distributors on improvements to the use of the money for Lottery good causes.

He is now recognised as one of the UK’s leading practitioners in public and charitable funding. Peter has devised the world’s first full masters-level programme in grantmaking and philanthropy at Cass Business School where he is academic leader of the Philanthropy, Grantmaking and Social Investment and Governance programmes.

He has published widely both on grantmaking and the history of philanthropy. His definitive book ‘The Business of Giving: The theory and practice of philanthropy, grantmaking and social investment’ was published by Palgrave in 2011. His latest book ‘Philanthropy and Voluntary Action in the First World War’ is to be published by Routledge/Taylor Francis in early 2014. Peter is a trustee of the DHL Foundation and of the Amy Winehouse Foundation, former Chair of the Voluntary Action History Society as well as President of Kennington Cricket Club.

Peter’s research and consultancy clients include government departments and charitable foundations. Past consultancy work has included the involvement of charities and public bodies in the London 2012 Olympics; the operation of parole processes in England and Wales and global senior management training for BP. His current clients include the Queen’s Trust and The Prince’s Charities.

Peter’s interest in general knowledge quizzes has led to appearances on University Challenge, Brain of Britain and Fifteen-to-One.