Ronald Charles Mason (1912 – 5 August 2001) was an English writer of novels, biographies, literary criticism and cricket books.
After the Second World War he completed a first-class honours degree in English from the University of London, studying externally.
[2] In Mason's obituary notice, Wisden said his cricket books were "marked by a genuine affection for the subject as well as a flowing style".
Here, in Batsman's Paradise, he describes in two sentences a rare appearance in higher company for the Surrey stalwart Tom Shepherd, in a Test trial at Lord's in 1927:[4] That he proceeded to engage with Leyland in a stand of over 200, driving beautifully and seeming never for a moment at a loss with the wiliest bowlers in the kingdom, never surprised me for a moment; that his innings of 90 or so was very correctly singled out as one of the gems of the match was entirely right and proper and to be expected.
That the selectors would never do anything about it, or that he would never get his chance to appear in any other representative matches of any kind, was almost as inevitable a corollary; and Tom Shepherd from that time forth obediently and I do not doubt quite contentedly continued to bat and bowl at the Oval, where he was known and honoured and knew his way about.