Alan Hill (1928 – 5 February 2021[1]) was a prominent biographer of cricketers.
Hill grew up in Yorkshire, and worked as a journalist, first in Yorkshire, then in London, where he joined Hayter's Sports Agency.[1] He won The Cricket Society/MCC Book of the Year award twice: in 1986 for Hedley Verity: A Portrait of a Cricketer, and in 1991 for Herbert Sutcliffe: Cricket Maestro.[2]
Reviewing Herbert Sutcliffe in Wisden, John Arlott called Hill's biographies "distinguished", "right in subject, treatment and content", and added: "Mr Hill's style is both balanced and unfussy; he knows when to state and when to quote ... he constantly leads the reader to think, thus heightening both his concentration and his interest."[3] Reviewing Daring Young Men for Cricinfo, Rob Steen called Hill "a nostalgist of occasional elegance and vast industry".[4] In Wisden in 2003 Frank Keating said, "Down the years, the diligent cuttings-librarian Hill has been a productive cottage industry, doing the game proud with a succession of fond and important studies".[5]
Alan Hill lived and worked in the Mid Sussex village of Lindfield for the last 50 years of his life.[6] He and his wife Betty, who predeceased him by seven days, had no children.[1]