The Sports Bookshelf

Forever Young: The Story of Adrian Doherty - Football's Lost Genius. Oliver Kay is chief football correspondent at The Times Times football journalist Oliver Kay has won the 2017 Cross Sports Book of the Year award for his debut book Forever Young: The Story of Adrian Doherty, Football’s Lost Genius. Kay, the newspaper’s Chief Football Correspondent, was named as the overall winner after sports book fans were asked to vote for their favourite among the nine category winners selected by the judges and announced at a ceremony at Lord’s Cricket Ground last month. Forever Young, which charts the tragically short life of former Manchester United player Doherty, was written with the co-operation of Doherty’s family in Belfast and Kay thanked them in a tweet on learning the news, declaring himself to be “amazed and delighted”. Read The Sports Bookshelf's review of Forever Young Doherty, a maverick character among United’s golden generation of Ryan Giggs, David

The shortlist announced in the autobiography section of the Cross Sports Book Awards for 2017 features two footballers, two Olympic athletes, a cricketer and a Formula One world champion. Those hoping to clinch the top prize when the winners are announced at Lord’s Cricket Ground next month are: • No Nonsense: The Autobiography , by Joey Barton (Simon & Schuster) • Watching the Wheels: My Autobiography , by Damon Hill (Macmillan) • This Mum Runs , by Jo Pavey (Yellow Jersey, PRH) • Unexpected: The Autobiography , by Greg Rutherford (Simon & Schuster) • Unguarded: My Autobiography , by Jonathan Trott (Sphere, Little Brown) • A Life in Football: My Autobiography , by Ian Wright (Constable, Little Brown) The titles from the longlist that missed the cut were: Triumphs & Turbulence , by Chris Boardman (Ebury, PRH); What Doesn’t Kill You… by Johnny Herbert (Transworld); Firestarter , by Ben Stokes (Headline); The Inside Track , by Laura Trott & Jas

Books 'reflect passion and knowledge' - judges' chair Vic Marks The shortlist of six for the 2017 Cricket Society and MCC Book of the Year Award shortlist has been announced. The list comprises books by cricket presenter Mark Nicholas and journalist Emma John, who both write about their love for and fascination with cricket, a couple of titles by ex-England players in Graeme Fowler and Alan Butcher, the latest from the brilliant Gideon Haigh and a portrait of Pakistan cricket by Peter Oborne and Richard Heller. Chair of judges Vic Marks said: “There is some good writing here. All six books reflect passion for and knowledge about their subject matter.  I look forward to lively discussion at the judges’ final meeting; there is no doubt we will come up with a worthy winner." The competition, run by the Cricket Society since 1970 and in partnership with MCC since 2009, is for books nominated by MCC and Cricket Society Members, and is highly regarded by write

WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016 The winner is announced Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life. By William Finnegan (Corsair) £9.99 William Finnegan  (centre) shows off the 2016 William Hill  Sports Book of the Year Award, flanked by (left-to-right)  judges Graham Sharpe, Alyson Rudd, Hugh McIlvanney, Mark Lawson, John Inverdale and Clarke Carlisle. Surfing memoir Barbarian Days, described as “compelling, elegiac and profound” by the chair of the judging panel, has won the 2016 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award for American author William Finnegan. The book, which has already won a Pulitzer Prize for the veteran New Yorker magazine writer, tells the story of Finnegan life through the prism of his 50-year obsession with surfing, from his childhood days in California and Hawaii to the present day. Barbarian Days beat a particularly strong field to land the £28,000 cash prize that goes with the award, which also comes with a leather-bound commemorative cop

WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016 On the Shortlist Find a Way: One Untamed and Courageous Life By Diana Nyad (Knopf Publishing Group), £16.99 Review by Jon Culley Diana Nyad, pictured earlier this year at a sports psychology conference in Phoenix This is the book that Hillary Clinton apparently said would remain by her side throughout her campaign to be President, as a source of inspiration. Diana Nyad excelled at open water swimming. In 1975 she swam the entire 28 mile (45km) circumference of the island of Manhattan in a world record time and in 1978, on her 30th birthday, swam the 102 miles (164km) from the Bahamas to Florida. This despite suffering abuse at the hands of both her stepfather and a swimming coach as an adolescent, and spending three months in hospital with a heart infection. When she retired from competitive swimming, she pursued a successful career that combined journalism, broadcasting and motivational speaking among other things. B

WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016 On the Shortlist Mister: The Men Who Taught the World How to Beat England at Their Own Game By Rory Smith (Simon & Schuster), £18.99 Review by Jon Culley Alan Rogers during his days as coach of the Iranian team Persepolis Big-name interviews sell newspapers, we are always told.  But how often does a star player tell you anything you did not already know? Football is a micro-managed business these days, with minders and media advisers never far away. It is why Times journalist Rory Smith admits the stories he most enjoys writing are often the less obvious ones, with interview subjects who may seem obscure on the face of it but frequently come with a fascinating back story waiting to be told. So when a friend drew his attention to a story in Southport's local paper about a belated honour for a war hero his curiosity was instantly piqued. The war hero was Alan Rogers, who had as a teenager served as a gunner on a Roy

WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016 On the Shortlist Mr Darley's Arabian: High Life, Low Life, Sporting Life: A History of Racing in 25 Horses. By Christopher McGrath (John Murray) £25.00 Review by Jon Culley Chris McGrath's book covers 300 years of racing history In the early part of the 18th century, when the landscape and politics of the Middle East was rather different from today, a gentleman merchant by the name of Thomas Darley, working for the Levant Company in Aleppo, acquired a horse. It was a bay colt, taller than the average Arabian horse.  In a letter to his brother in 1703, Darley noted that it was strikingly handsome and "with an exceedingly elegant carriage". He bought it for his father, Richard, with plans to take it back to the family's country seat, Aldby Park, not far from the village of Stamford Bridge in the East Riding of Yorkshire. In some accounts, it has been suggested that Darley came across the animal after reviv