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: No

Violence: No

Six: No

Nudity: N

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

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

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

50 COURTS go 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 of Traveling Youth). Some of the courts disappear along the way, but new ones take their place. Traveling this 50 court trip gave Haven all the problems with MapQuest and other technical changes. Strangely, the courts are all different, and the rules have different applications. The book looks at the golden age of the great barons of the 19th and 20th centuries who built their own courts, as well as royalty and commoners and mere sportsmen building courts around the world. It also looks at historical events such as the French Revolution which began with a meeting on a 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 danger, and it’s dramatic because the characters are truly people of grace and values ​​that you root for throughout the book. I highly recommend WORLDWIDE IN 50 COURTS. It is beautifully written, beautifully illustrated and a read that I would wake up at night wanting to continue in amongst my many travels to seek and teach around the world.

One of our classmates L. Ashley Higgins noted that “the book is amazing. Haven is such a superior travel guide that my feeling was to slip in polished language to small, but immaculately beautiful, treasures of the best of the West.”

CONTENT: (BBB, N, A): Dominant worldview and other worldview content/elements: Very strong moral worldview that looks at life in a couple hundred years of history through an obscure game that binds people in a unique way; Keywords: No foul language; Violence: No violence; Six: 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, Various Immoralities: Nothing else offensive.