The Sports Bookshelf

SPORTS BOOKS FOR CHRISTMAS: RUGBY UNION Christmas 2012 comes too early for the definitive story of the England rugby team's astounding victory over the All Blacks at Twickenham to make it into print but while that one waits to be written there are plenty of contenders for the rugby fan's wish list. They range from the year's bestseller, Jonny Wilkinson's Jonny: My Autobiography to Behind the Lions , a collection of stories that will whet the appetite for next summer's tour of Australia by the British and Irish Lions. Wilkinson's story, ghost written by Times journalist Owen Slot, made the longlist for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year for 2012 , both for the quality of the writing and the depth of the England fly-half's soul-searching.   Wilkinson has been a tortured soul, wracked by self-doubt, fearful of the future to the extent that, even in his career-defining moment, when his drop goal sealed England's historic World Cup victor

Times is running out for the chance to win £50 in National Book Tokens by voting for your favourite sports book from among the winners at the British Sports Book Awards, announced earlier this month.  Follow the link to an online form to register your vote an be entered automatically into a draw. The closing date is next Sunday, June 12th. To help you chose, The Sports Bookshelf is highlighting each of the eight contenders to be named the overall British Sports Book of the Year. Today's category winner: BEST RUGBY BOOK  The Grudge is Scotland on Sunday journalist Tom English’s gripping account of a rugby match that became the focal point for a clash of political cultures, brought to a head when Scotland was identified as the testing ground for the introduction of the most notorious piece of taxation legislation in living memory, the Community Charge, otherwise known as the Poll Tax. Poll Tax was Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's baby and was universally unpopular.  Th

Why not take the chance to win £50 in National Book Tokens by voting for your favourite sports book from among the winners at the British Sports Book Awards, announced earlier this month!  Follow the link to an online form to register your vote an be entered automatically into a draw. To help you chose, over the next few days the  Sports Bookshelf will highlight each of the eight contenders to be named the overall British Sports Book of the Year. Today's category winner: BEST AUTOBIOGRAPHY Brian Moore’s bleakly honest life story had already collected the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award for 2010 before it was announced as winner of the Best Autobiography category at the British Sports Book Awards. The former England rugby hooker‘s candid and unsettling memoir tracks the highs and lows of a highly successful rugby career but goes much further, revealing painful memories of sexual abuse suffered as a schoolboy and the feelings of rejection he encountered as an ado

THE SPORTS BOOKSHELF SPOTLIGHTS THE SHORTLISTS PART FIVE -- BEST RUGBY BOOK The shortlists have been announced for the ninth British Sports Book Awards, organised by the National Sporting Club. The winners will be named at a ceremony at The Savoy Hotel on 9th May. The number of categories rises to 10 this year with the introduction of ‘best racing book’ and ‘best sports book retailer’ in addition to best biography and autobiography, best football, cricket and rugby books, best illustrated title, best new writer and best publicity campaign. After the awards are made, the winners in each category will be entered into a public vote to find the best overall sports book of the year -- a campaign that will be supported by booksellers throughout the country in the run up to Father's Day. The Sports Bookshelf spotlights the candidates for each prize, with links to selected reviews. Today’s spotlight is on the Best Rugby Book award, for which the candidates are: The Iron Duke ,

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

IN PAPERBACK _____________ RUGBY BOOKS Beware of the Dog: Rugby's Hard Man Reveals All The winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award in November, Brian Moore’s dark autobiography was published in paperback soon afterwards and was among the best-selling sports books in the run-up to Christmas, and beyond. And with good reason; as a candid confession from deep within the soul of a sports star, the rugby hardman’s story has few peers. The former England hooker turned rugby writer and commentator was guaranteed to make headlines through his revelations about the sexual abuse he suffered as a schoolboy at the hands of a male teacher.   Given the popularity of so-called “misery memoirs”, Moore’s bleak and terrifying experience was an obvious selling point. As such, even though the victim in this case has a high public profile, it is not a new theme.  What sets Moore’s tale apart -- and clearly impressed the William Hill judges -- is the depth of the author’s per

A sporting life with a darker side has again found favour with the judging panel for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year, who have awarded the richest prize for sports writing to the ex-England and British Lions rugby star Brian Moore. The former hooker, known as ‘Pit Bull’ in his playing days in the 1990s, scooped the £22,000 award for his harrowing, soul-baring autobiography Beware of the Dog: Rugby's Hardman Reveals All. Two years ago, the William Hill judges went for former England cricketer Marcus Trescothick’s autobiography, Coming Back to Me , which broke new ground in the sports book genre by discussing the depression that ended the Somerset batsman’s international career. Moore’s memoirs are equally raw and revealing, in the most deeply personal and painful sense, bringing to light for the first time the sexual abuse he suffered as a boy at the hands of a trusted friend of his adoptive parents. Beware of the Dog beat off competition from a strong field that i