How can studies of group activities inform our understanding of historical figures? In this post, Ollie Randall introduces his new article,'Cricket, Literary Culture and In-Groups in Early Twentieth-Century Britain', published this month in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. The social and literary role of the 'Authors Eleven', a cricket side of London-based writers active between 1899 and 1912, is explored through case studies of the writers George Ives, E. W. Hornung and P. G. Wodehouse. Each saw their involvement in cricket, and particularly the Authors Eleven in-group, as an essential component of their social status. Shared physical activity and embodied sociability, encapsulated in sports teams, offer ways to understand the development and cultural significance of individual lives.