of 1941 through Crisp's participation in Operation Crusader, up to his wounding. He was decorated for his bravery during the North African campaign and after being wounded there, nearly died several times from shrapnel in his skull as well as subsequent infection. Bernard Montgomery, commanding, intervened to restrict Crisp's decorations given the latter's disrespect for authority. Crisp ended the war with a Military Cross, Distinguished Service Order, and four "Mentioned in Dispatches". Crisp was also noted for his womanising, "crooning in the nightclubs" of Alexandria and his wide-ranging travel – including climbing Mount Kilimanjaro (he is the only Test cricketer to have climbed it twice) and swimming Loch Lomond. He went on to a career as a journalist, writing for Wisden and several newspapers. He helped found Drum for black South Africans, sailed Greece, farmed minks in England and wrote for the East Anglian Daily Times. During the 1970s, Crisp was diagnosed with cancer and responded by walking around Crete for a year, supporting himself by selling his account to the Sunday Express. He remained outspoken on apartheid, advocating "a federation of semi-autonomous states, black and white" and arguing that "nothing else is feasible". The end of segregation "startled" him. He lived to see South Africa reintegrated into the international Test scene before dying in 1994. Books Crisp wrote a number of books, including: The Gods Were Neutral: A British Tank Officer's Very Personal Account of the Ill-Fated Greek Campaign in WWII, 1959 Brazen Chariots: An Account of Tank Warfare in the Western Desert, November–December 1941, 1959, The Outlanders: The Men Who Made Johannesburg, 1964, Zen and the Art of Donkey Maintenance, 2015, Bloomsbury compiled from his travel journalism serialised in the Daily Express in the 1960s and 1970s. References External links "The life of the most extraordinary man to play Test cricket" by Andy Bull 1911 births 1994 deaths Anglo-Indian people White South African people South Africa Test cricketers Rhodesia cricketers Western Province cricketers Worcestershire cricketers British Army personnel of World War II South African people of Anglo-Indian descent Royal Tank Regiment officers Military personnel of British India