The Sports Bookshelf

Paul Kimmage, who won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award in 1990 with the cycling claasic, Rough Ride, has been shortlisted for this year’s prize for Engage: The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson, even though the acclaimed story of the paralysed England Under-21 rugby player was not originally submitted for the prize. This means the shortlist for this year’s ‘bookie prize’, the richest award of its type in the world, will consist of seven titles rather than six. William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe explained: “Although the book had not been submitted for the prize at the time our longlist was announced, the members of our judging panel nevertheless agreed to consider it once it was brought to their attention. “We would normally have selected six titles for the shortlist but the addition of Engage means there will be a magnificent seven titles this year, so no other author has been denied a place by its inclusion. This decision takes into account the feeling that it would

BOOKS ABOUT CRICKET Now he’s back on home soil again, Graeme Swann is embarking on a promotional tour for his new book, The Breaks Are Off, between November 3rd and 7th, starting in Nottingham next Thursday.  Swann courted controversy in the book by commenting on Kevin Pietersen’s brief reign as England captain, which did not go down well with the current coach, Andy Flower. The world’s No 3 ranked Test and one-day international bowler is just home from an ODI series in which England were woeful, losing 5-0 to India.  Their current one-day captain is Alastair Cook. Cook gets a few mentions in The Breaks are Off , too. The opening batsman is mildly rebuked for being “the messiest colleague you could have” in the dressing room and ribbed for being “a real goody-two-shoes” after being entrusted with the critical responsibility for waking Swann up when there is a flight to catch. Swann comments on Cook’s captaincy, too.  “He stumbles and stammers when he speaks…he’s best summed up

For a journalist with a taste for nostalgia and a lifelong love of cricket, the chance to delve into the then and now of some of Britain’s vanishing cricket grounds was an offer Chris Arnot couldn’t resist. It came from Aurum Press , who were looking for a likely author to write a book entitled Britain’s Lost Cricket Grounds after the writer originally commissioned had to withdraw from the project. Given that his only other venture into books had been a celebration of 60 years of The Archers, the Coventry-based freelance journalist might not have seemed an obvious choice but the opportunity showed that if you have an ambition to do something different, don’t keep it to yourself. “I wanted to write a cricket book and I’d been in touch with Graham Coster at Aurum with another idea that was not taken up,” Chris told The Sports Bookshelf. “He had remembered that.  It helped too that he is a Guardian reader and had seen some of the pieces I had written for them. “When he asked me

Nothing helps a book sell more than a little controversy and Graeme Swann’s remarks about Kevin Pietersen’s captaincy of the England cricket team will have done no harm in shifting copies of his autobiography, The Breaks Are Off . After England coach Andy Flower raised the book’s profile by expressing his views on the matter last week, former skipper Michael Vaughan has had his two penn’orth, echoing Flower’s sentiments. In the book, Swann described Pietersen as “a good player, a really fine batsman, but never the right man to captain England”. For all Pietersen's talent, Swann added, the controversial star was “not one of those natural leaders.” Flower‘s view is that it is "not a good idea for current players to be talking about their fellow players." Now Vaughan has come down on the same side of the argument, criticising the Nottinghamshire off-spinner for speaking out of school. Speaking to the sportinglife.com website, Vaughan said: "When you make co

Fred Trueman’s memorable contention that he was ‘the finest bloody fast bowler that ever drew breath’ was made tongue-in-cheek by the great Yorkshire and England cricketer but to his army of admirers in the 1950s and 60s it was a boast he would have been quite entitled to make. The quotation found its way into cricket folklore 40 years ago after John Arlott wrote Fred: Portrait of a Fast Bowler .  Trueman, taking the view, one imagines, that ‘fast bowler’ was hardly an adequate description, jokingly suggested that his version would have done a better job. Yet serious or otherwise, the phrase rang true and still does with many Yorkshire supporters, who should seek out the new portrait just published by Aurum Press. Fred Trueman: The Authorised Biography is the product of long and painstaking research by Chris Waters, the cricket correspondent of the Yorkshire Post, who sought to look beyond the brash, Jack-the-lad image that Trueman was once happy to live up to and find the trut

The contenders for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year include some fine additions to the genre but as ever there are omissions that make talking points. One is former Manchester City footballer Paul Lake’s excellent autobiography, I'm Not Really Here , the absence of which from the William Hill longlist published earlier this month is lamented by Brian Viner in today’s Independent . Viner interviewed Lake, a brilliant midfielder whose career was wrecked by a knee injury before he could realise his enormous potential, at City’s Etihad Stadium ahead of this weekend’s Manchester derby and noted that his subject was feeling “a little deflated” on the day they met. He writes: “The long list of contenders for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award has just been announced, and his book isn't on it. It should be. It's the best football autobiography I've read since Paul McGrath's Back From The Brink, and a similarly heart-rending chronicle of the vici

After David Haye’s announcement that he is quitting the boxing ring with immediate effect, fans at least will not have to wait long to relive his career. The former WBA world heavyweight champion, who lost his title to Wladimir Klitschko in Hamburg in July, tells his story in Making Haye , the authorised biography, which will be published on October 27th by Quercus. Making Haye claims to offer ‘behind-the-scenes, never-before-told insights into some of the most pivotal ring wars of David Haye's turbulent, and at times controversial, professional boxing career.’ Don’t expect it to be too critical, however.  The author, Elliott Worsell , a boxing journalist who has followed Haye’s career since he was fighting as an amateur 10 years ago, is also the main contributor and features editor for Haye's official magazine, Hayemaker, and a close confidant of the Bermondsey-born fighter. Nonetheless, admirers of the charismatic champion, who now plans to turn his talents towards an ac

After a late update to include his temporary elevation to England captain (for last month’s two Twenty20 matches against West Indies), cricketer Graeme Swann’s autobiography hits the bookstands this week. As a foretaste, readers of The Sun can learn in today’s edition how the Nottinghamshire off-spinner’s first England tour included a painful late-night collision with teammate Darren Gough’s fist. The incident occurred during a difficult period in the player’s career.  Picked to tour South Africa as a 20-year-old, Swann failed the essential requirement for a happy trip by falling out of favour with coach Duncan Fletcher and subsequently suffered homesickness. He was eager to be a popular tourist in a social sense but his antics did not impress all of his colleagues, Gough apparently among them as their encounter in the toilets of a Johannesburg hotel would seem to suggest. At 32, Swann is now an established star of the England team and is twice an Ashes winner.  But he had to

After the success of Bounce, the thesis on what makes a champion that won Matthew Syed the best new writer prize at this year’s British Sports Book Awards, another slice of analysis is in the running for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2011 . This time it comes from Michael Johnson , four-times Olympic champion turned commentator and motivational speaker, who has interviewed the collective winners of more than 50 Olympic gold medals in his search for the factors that set winning athletes apart from others. Gold Rush , which draws on 400-metre star Johnson’s own career and on interviews with Usain Bolt, Carl Lewis, Seb Coe, Ian Thorpe, Steve Redgrave and Michael Jordan among others, is on a longlist of 14 for the award dubbed the ‘Bookie Prize’, which has a cash prize of £23,000, making it the richest award of its type in the world. Competition for Johnson includes cyclist David Millar, for his autobiography Racing Through the Dark , and award-winning sportswriter Patrick