The Sports Bookshelf

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

Joey Barton Controversial footballer Joey Barton's autobiography No Nonsense has been included on the longlist for the 2016 William Hill Sports Book of the Year even though it was published only yesterday. Written in collaboration with Michael Calvin, the award-winning author and sports journalist, Barton's book promises to deliver a candid account of a life never far from the headlines on and off the field. Calvin is the third writer to work with the player, who began the project in 2014 with Times journalist Matthew Syed and made one attempt to write it himself, which he did not sustain beyond nine chapters. There is much detail, some of it quite harrowing, about his upbringing in hard-edged working class Liverpool, where many of his associates and even family members were involved in crime at one level or another.  His brother, Michael, and his cousin, Paul Taylor, are serving jail sentences for the murder of an innocent black teenager. The book has no short

Donald McRae, twice winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year prize, is an early favourite to be among the winners at the 2016 Cross Sports Book Awards. The South African-born writer, whose interviews in The Guardian newspaper are always worth reading, collaborated with former Liverpool and England captain Steven Gerrard on his autobiography, My Story. The book is notable for some frank opinions on colleagues and opponents, referees and managers, but also for Gerrard's ability to look inside himself and describe how he was affected by the ups and downs of his career. After completing the book, published after the player said his farewells to Liverpool before moving to conclude his career in America, McRae commented: "Gerrard leads us through every exhilarating high and bruising low of his 27 years at Liverpool. It is a career full of contrast and drama. “There is depth and pathos, too, because Steven Gerrard is a one-club man who joined the Liverpool acad

A host of authors will be discussing their books at the London Festival of Sports Writing, which takes place at Lord's Cricket Ground from Thursday (November 12) to Sunday this week. This is the third year of this new festival dedicated to the best in sports writing, jointly hosted by David Luxton Associates and Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) with the support of media partner London Evening Standard. The four-day celebration kicks off on Thursday with cricket, football and tennis on the agenda for the opening day. Among the authors appearing will be Richard Tomlinson, author of Amazing Grace: The Man Who was W.G. , William Skidelsky, author of Federer and Me: A Story of Obsession . Tomlinson will sit down with Lawrence Booth, editor of Wisden, and Jonathan Rice, who compiled Wisden on Grace , to discuss the legacy of the great W. G. on the 100th anniversary of his death in the company of Richard Whitehead, editor of The Times on the Ashes . Skidelsky will talk about his

NEW BOOKS - SOME HIGHLIGHTS Cycling Bernard Hinault and the Fall and Rise of French Cycling , by William Fotheringham (Yellow Jersey) The striking from the record of Lance Armstong's seven wins reinstated Bernard Hinault as the champion of multiple Tour de France victories, jointly with his French compatriot Jacques Anquetil, the legendary Belgian Eddy Merckx and Spain's Miguel Indurain, all of whom won the race five times. Yet three decades on from his retirement, Hinault remains the last Frenchman to win the Tour. His victory in 1985 marks the turning point when the nation who had dominated the first eight decades of the race they had invented suddenly found they were no longer able to win it. Hinault was a larger-than-life character from a working-class background.  Nicknamed the 'Badger' for his combative style, he led a cyclists’ strike in his first Tour and instigated a legendary punch-up with political demonstrators who brought the 1982 race to a h