The Sports Bookshelf

Stephen Chalke did not take up cricket writing until 1997, when he was in his 50th year, yet it is a measure of the strong contribution he has made to the genre that there are few cricket libraries or personal collections that do not contain something he has written or published. His publishing business, Fairfield Books, has grown from its beginnings as a self-publishing vehicle for his own debut book to boasting a catalogue that now stands at about 30 titles. His authors include veteran cricket journalist David Foot, broadcaster Pat Murphy and the current Nottinghamshire batsman, Mark Wagh. No fewer than seven Fairfield titles have captured national book awards.   The latest, Of Didcot And The Demon, a collection of the cricket writings of former Times reporter Alan Gibson, was Cricket Society and MCC Book of the Year in 2010, scooping the award for Fairfield for the second year running and for an unprecedented third time overall. Fairfield has also won the National Sporting Club

Robin Oakley spent much of his working life as a political journalist, rising from provincial beginnings on the Liverpool Daily Post to be political editor of The Times and then the BBC, where he succeeded the legendary John Cole in 1992 and gave way to Andrew Marr in 2000. But in his heart he clearly preferred the affairs of the turf to affairs of state.  Building on the Spectator column on horse racing he took up as a sideline in 1994, he has now severed his ties both with Westminster and Brussels -- he was until recently European political editor for CNN -- to concentrate on writing horse racing books. The author of a fine biography of racehorse trainer Barry Hills and a portrait of the horse racing community in Lambourn, Berkshire, Oakley has delivered a tour de force to coincide with this week’s Cheltenham Festival. Oakley’s Centenary History of what might be termed the national championships of jump racing is an enthralling history of the events which have made the Cheltenha

Three times a contender for honours at the British Sports Book Awards, David Tossell has been short listed for the Cricket Society and MCC Book of the Year Award 2011 for his fascinating Following On: A Year With English Cricket’s Golden Boys (Know The Score). Although the cover illustration features a jubilant Graeme Swann, the Golden Boys in question are neither of the successful England Ashes teams of recent vintage but the 1998 Under-19 World Cup winners, who were at the time hailed as a golden generation among young English cricketers. Tossell tracked down each of the 14 players England used on their way to beating New Zealand in the final in Johannesburg and, by examining their lives in 2009, revealed the differing paths their careers had followed. For Graeme Swann and Owais Shah, for example, 2009 saw both in pursuit of England ambitions. Robert Key and the emerging Twenty20 star Graham Napier were awaiting their country's call, while others wondered whether their county

When sports writer Dave Armitage was gathering the impressive collection of Brian Clough anecdotes that made up his book 150 BC, he had a shrewd idea there were plenty of tales of Old Big ‘Ead he hadn’t yet heard, quite apart from those he was not able to include. Sure enough, even after interviewing close to 100 people he thought might have a story or two -- in some cases several -- to tell about the legendary manager, he soon found there were plenty more where they came from. So many, in fact, that Dave is putting the finishing touches now to a second volume, due out in the early autumn. “People who’d already been kind enough to share memories with me began to get back to me with stories they’d previously forgotten,” he told The Sports Bookshelf . “And others who’d read the first book would want to tell me their tales. “I quickly realised there were enough for a second book if people liked the first one.” In fact, 150 BC was such a hit with its target audience that booksellers

WHAT TO DO AND WHAT NOT TO DO TO GO IT ALONE AND WIN Not so long ago, self-publishing would be dismissed as little better than vanity publishing, where authors would pay to see their work in print and make nothing in return. But falling print costs have made it much more possible to turn a profit even from fairly small sales.  Dave Armitage -- author, publisher and publicist for 150 BC -- reckons that in a difficult market place, being a one-man show might be the way ahead. “It’s not going to make you a millionaire but if you can sell a thousand copies, maybe even fewer, there is a worthwhile profit to be made,” Dave said. “If you can sell more, of course, the rewards will be higher.” Of course, there is no guarantee that a book will generate a thousand sales, tiny though the number might seem when you consider that The Da Vinci Code has sold more than 4.5 million. Finding even a thousand buyers requires the author to know the market and target it vigorously. But having achie

IN PAPERBACK After John Carlin’s Playing The Enemy proved that a book about rugby could find an audience beyond the sport’s traditional fans -- and provided the inspiration for the movie Invictus -- Tom English repeated the trick with The Grudge. The story of the 1990 Calcutta Cup, an epic match that not only decided the Grand Slam in Scotland’s favour but came to be symbolic of the political climate of the time, brought acclaim for English and a place on the long list for the 2010 William Hill Sports Book of the Year award. It might have made the shortlist, too, had Brian Moore’s Beware of the Dog not taken pole position as the year’s outstanding rugby book.  Moore, ironically, is one of the key characters in The Grudge. As it is, The Grudge is re-released in paperback with no shortage of endorsements. Stephen Jones, rugby correspondent of the Sunday Times, hailed it as “the finest book written on the tournament” praising English for “an absolutely outstanding work, weaving in

HORSE RACING With the Cheltenham Festival only a couple of weeks away, what better time to dip into The Daily Telegraph Book of Horse Racing, which promises to relive some of racing’s greatest moments through the passion and authority of some real thoroughbreds from the Telegraph stable down the years. Subtitled Kings, Queens & Four-Legged Athletes , this 384-page anthology just published by Aurum Press draws on the fine writings of John Oaksey,  Brough Scott, J.A. McGrath, Marcus Armytage, Peter Scott and Paul Hayward, plus the anonymous Hotspurs and Marlboroughs who have been the Telegraph’s resident tipsters and commentators.  There are contributions, too, from jockeys Tony McCoy and Frankie Dettori. Often dubbed ‘The Sport of Kings’, horse racing embraces every level of society, with room for Queens, Lords and Ladies and a fair few knaves and cheats, but also for the serious student of form, the working man looking for entertainment and the thrill of a punt, plus the hous