Book Review: AROUND THE WORLD IN 50 COURTS

Published: October 25, 2024

** Fascinating, Unique Portrait of Another World **

By Dr. Ted Baehr, Publisher

Title: AROUND THE WORLD IN 50 COURTS

Quality: * * * * Acceptability: +3

WARNING CODES:

Language: None

Violence: None

Sex: None

Nudity: N

AROUND THE WORLD IN 50 COURTS is one of the most unique, fascinating books that yours truly has ever read. It’s written by a someone I’ve known almost all of my life, but never knew very well, Haven Pell. Haven and I grew up on the Gold Coast of the North Shore of Long Island. We both went to a prestigious boarding school in the same class. We’d see each other once in a long while.

What makes this book so interesting is that it’s a real story about an obscure game called Real Court Tennis, not lawn tennis, but the predecessor of lawn tennis played inside in a very unique court. The French call it the Game of Palms

Haven’s true story is like reading science fiction. It’s a loving, gracious, entertaining window on another universe, a universe that’s continually on the verge of disappearing but sustained by a unique group who love this little-known game and who welcome each other to play in their local court including fellowshiping with one another. What makes the book even better is that it’s written in a humble, personal style that respects others and helps you understand the tremendous obstacles facing the players.

50 COURTS goes from America to England to France to Australia, including the Australian province of Tasmania (where one of my sons lives with his large family and ministry to work traveling young people). Some of the courts disappear along the way, but new ones take their place. Traveling this 50 court journey presented Haven with all the problems of MapQuest and other technological changes. Strangely, the courts are all different, and the rules have various different applications. The book looks at the Golden Age of the great barons of the 1800s and 1900s who built their own courts, as well as the royalty and the commoners and just athletes who build courts around the world. It also looks at historical events like the French Revolution that started with a meeting in a court tennis court.

Haven doesn’t think this is a dramatic book, but it is. It’s dramatic because it’s a game that’s always on the verge of disappearing, which is great jeopardy and tits dramatic because the characters are truly people of grace and values that you root for throughout the book. I highly recommend AROUND THE WORLD IN 50 COURTS. It’s beautifully written, beautifully illustrated and a read that I would wake up at night and want to continue in among my many trips of seeking and teaching around the world.

One of our classmates L. Ashley Higgins noted that the “book is splendid. Haven is such a superior tour guide that my sensation was of gliding on polished language to small, but immaculately beautiful, treasures of the best of the Western world.”

CONTENT: (BBB, N, A): Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements: Very strong moral worldview looking at life in a couple hundred years of history through an obscure game that bonds people in a unique way; Foul Language: No foul language; Violence: No violence; Sex: No sex; Nudity: An incident of skinny dipping is reported; Alcohol Use: Some references to alcohol use; Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse: No smoking or drugs; and, Miscellaneous Immorality: Nothing else objectionable.