Punditry reaping the benefits as Red Nev takes his love of an argument from page to screen

Sports books for Christmas

Gary Neville’s studio manner might need polishing but the former Manchester United captain and England defender winning over the sceptics as a media commentator for his willingness to engage in meaningful debate.

It struck a positive note, certainly, with the Independent’s venerable columnist James Lawton, who described Neville’s verbal jousting with the wise but prickly Graeme Souness during the Sky Sports coverage of Liverpool’s match against Manchester City on Sunday as something that “should be weighed in gold” by their bosses “blowing away the studio double-talk that has tumbled so relentlessly down the years.”

In Neville’s case, he has picked up where he left off, to an extent, in his autobiography Red, which has been one of the top sellers in sports books during 2011.

** Sports Book Deals in Amazon's 12 days of Christmas promotion **


Red was notable for the way in which Neville -- England's shop steward during the Rio Ferdinand strike threat -- did not shy away from taking aim at some very high profile targets, in particular the managers he served during an 85-cap international career that, he said, felt at times like “a massive waste of time”.

Glenn Hoddle, Kevin Keegan, Sven-Goran Eriksson and Steve McClaren all suffered a broadside.  Terry Venables was spared but even Fabio Capello, who had Neville in his squad for a couple of games without picking him in the team, did not escape, despite initially making a good impression.

Neville lambasted Hoddle for his embracing of faith healer Eileen Drewery, Keegan for taking England back to the era of card games and race nights, Eriksson for being in thrall to David Beckham and McClaren for then kicking Beckham out.

Not surprisingly, his views on Sir Alex Ferguson are somewhat less obviously critical but this is not so much out of fear as unapologetic admiration.

Red is one of a dozen or so sports books featuring in Amazon’s ‘12 days of Christmas’ promotion, which runs until December 11th and offers discounts of up to 65 per cent.

Manchester United fans are particularly well catered for.  The lavishly illustrated Paul Scholes autobiography, Scholes: My Story, is another on the list.  Scholes was a media shy man of few public words during his playing career and the words, written with the aid of experienced football scribe Ivan Ponting, can hardly be compared with Gary Neville’s as a source of insightful controversy.  Yet My Story, while dominated by photographs, has been praised for reflecting Scholes’s mischievous sense of humour and his undoubted pleasure at being part of the Manchester United family.

The ginger midfielder’s love for United would make him an ideal candidate to receive a gift-wrapped copy of Sir Alex Ferguson: The Official Manchester United Story of 25 Years at The Top, the club’s own tribute of Fergie’s quarter of a century at Old Trafford.

Ivan Ponting also collaborated with former United legend Denis Law in another picture-led story, crafting Law’s comments to make pleasant, good-humoured reading between the illustrations in Denis Law: My Life in Football.
Pictures feature heavily, too, in Glorious: My World, Football and Me, which allows Paul Gascoigne to describe the moments and events that he feels defined his career in his own voice.

Readers looking for a more absorbing narrative away from football will be attracted by Rafa: My Story, in which the accomplished interviewer and writer John Carlin coaxes out some deep insight into the mind of Spanish tennis champion Rafael Nadal, revealing much of the emotional side of a player noted for guarding his privacy, and details about the home life of which Nadal had not spoken before.

Racing Through the Dark, the take-no-prisoners story of the doping culture in cycling that shape the career of David Millar, offers an even more gripping and gritty tale, one that was short listed for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2011, while Tony McCoy, 16-times champion jockey and winner of every major National Hunt racing prize, has been short listed for William Hill Irish Sports Book of the Year for My Autobiography  (his second, in fact),  written with the help of the Irish racing journalist and broadcaster Donn McClean.

The promotion offers a couple of titles with Olympics fans in mind in the shape of Gold Rush, an analysis of what makes an Olympic champion conducted by four-times Olympic gold medallist Michael Johnson, and Sir Steve Redgrave’s choice of Great Olympic Moments.

Lawrence Dallaglio’s World Cup Rugby Tales might seem a little tame in the light of the shame brought upon themselves by England players at the latest tournament but the former England captain will nonetheless delight rugby fans who prefer their anecdotes with traditional earthiness but a little less controversy.

And no football fan’s Christmas stocking would be the poorer for the presence of The Worst Football Kits of All Time, Dave Moor’s full-colour celebration of some of the most outrageous strips foisted upon the poor players and bemused supporters, even before commercial pressures drove designers to outrageous lengths to boost replica sales.  Some of the horrors were those worn by Victorian gentleman long before club shops were even imagined.

The full list of titles.  Click on the link to buy.

Red: My Autobiography, by Gary Neville (Bantam Press)
Scholes: My Story, by Paul Scholls (Simon & Schuster)
Sir Alex Ferguson: The Official Manchester United Story of 25 Years at The Top (Simon & Schuster)
Denis Law: My Life in Football, by Denis Law and Ivan Ponting (Simon & Schuster)
Glorious: My World, Football and Me, by Paul Gascoigne (Simon & Schuster)
Rafa: My Story, by Rafael Nadal and John Carlin (Sphere)
Racing Through the Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar, by David Millar (Orion)
A.P. McCoy: My Autobiography, by A.P. McCoy (Orion)
Gold Rush, by Michael Johnson (HarperSport)
Great Olympic Moments, by Steve Redgrave (Headline)
World Cup Rugby Tales, by Lawrence Dallaglio (Simon & Schuster)
The Worst Football Kits of All Time, by Dave Moor (The History Press)

To browse more sports books for Christmas, visit The Sports Bookshelf Shop

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Story of a suicide in football is poignant winner of William Hill Sports Book of the Year prize

William Hill Sports Book of the Year award -- the winner


Ronald Reng’s deeply touching story of the life and death of the German national team’s goalkeeper, Robert Enke, has won the 2011 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award.

A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke (Yellow Jersey) was selected from a shortlist of seven titles for the honour, the richest book award of its kind with a cash prize of £23,000. The announcement was made at a reception today at Waterstone’s Piccadilly.

Enke died two years ago this month when he stepped in front of an express train near his home in Germany, having suffered a history of depression.  The recognition for Reng’s skilful telling of a painful story is all the more poignant for coming on a day when the headlines are dominated by the shocking news of another former footballer taking his own life, the Wales manager Gary Speed.

Broadcaster John Inverdale, spokesman for the judging panel, referred to the ‘tragic symmetry’ in their decision, which was reached without knowledge of Speed’s fate.  Cyclist David Millar, whose own autobiography was on the shortlist of seven, Tweeted: 'Worthy winner: pertinent subject.'

When Enke’s death was announced, the reaction in the football world in Germany in particular was much the same as England and Wales has witnessed in the last 24 hours.  Friends and supporters of Enke, who was set to be Germany’s goalkeeper at the World Cup finals in 2010, were stunned, as were the wider public, unable to comprehend why an international footballer apparently at the peak of his career should decide to take his own life.

In A Life Too Short, Reng pieces together the story of a man who had also been his friend as well as his countryman, revealing much about the pressure on those who play sport at the top level and the fears with which many grapple behind a veneer of false confidence. Heartfelt, but never sentimental, Reng describes in painful details the tragedy of a talented man ultimately beaten by his own demons.

Translated into English by Shaun Whiteside and published by Yellow Jersey Press in the UK earlier this autumn, it represents the first translated title to have won the prize.

William Hill spokesman and co-founder of the prize, Graham Sharpe, said: "Robert Enke was one of Germany's greatest goalkeepers and his tragic death shocked the world. Ronald Reng's intimate portrait - vivid, powerful and moving - is an outstanding piece of sportswriting and a very worthy winner of the prize".

John Gaustad, chairman of the judging panel, said: "It is a brilliant piece of work, understated in a sense. [The author] uses very few adjectives and tells it with great restraint and a sensitivity and dignity for its subject. It could not have been done better."

Critics were profoundly moved by the story on its publication in the UK in September. Amy Lawrence, writing in the Observer, confessed it made her feel ‘ashamed about some opinions I have dived into. It is so easy to rush to judgment, to make a cartoon villain of someone or vent spleen from a position of the supposed moral high ground.’

Andy Mitten, in the Manchester Evening News, wrote that ‘English footballers will tell you privately that depression is a far bigger issue than is currently recognised.  Many suffer in silence, afraid even to seek counselling. Maybe by reading about a German who took his life, more will understand.’

The award is the second won by London-based Reng for a book about a German goalkeeper. In 2004, he won the biography prize at the British Sports Book Awards for The Keeper Of Dreams, the story of Lars Leese, who was plucked from the obscurity of reserve team football in the Bundesliga to play for Barnsley in the Premier League.

The judging panel for this year’s award consisted of BBC presenter Inverdale, the much-decorated journalist Hugh McIlvanney, broadcaster Danny Kelly and columnist and author, Alyson Rudd along with chairman Gaustad, co-creator of the award and founder of the Sportspages bookshop.

A Life Too Short beat competition from a strong field, from which a shortlist was selected, in addition to Reng’s book, that  comprised Among The Fans, by Patrick Collins (Wisden Sports Writing); Into The Arena: The World of the Spanish Bullfight, by Alexander Fiske-Harrison (Profile Books); The Ghost Runner: The Tragedy of the Man They Couldn’t Stop, by Bill Jones (Mainstream Publishing);
Engage : The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson, by Paul Kimmage (Simon & Schuster); Racing Through The Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar, by David Millar with Jeremy Whittle (Orion) and 32 Programmes, by Dave Roberts (Bantam Press).

The William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award is the world's longest established and most valuable literary sports-writing prize. As well as a £23,000 cash prize, the winning author receives a £2,000 William Hill bet, a hand-bound copy of their book, and a day at the races.  Reng is the 23rd winner of the award. He received his cheque from the 2010 winner, Brian Moore.

READ MORE ABOUT THE SEVEN CONTENDERS FOR THE PRIZE

A Life Too Short

The Ghost Runner

32 Programmes
Racing Through the Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar
Into the Arena: The World of the Spanish Bullfight
Among The Fans
Engage: The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson

...or click on any of these links to buy direct from Amazon

A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke
Engage: The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson
Among the Fans
The Ghost Runner: The Tragedy of the Man They Couldn't Stop
Into The Arena: The World of the Spanish Bullfight
32 Programmes
Racing Through the Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar

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Kimmage's skills give voice to a brave young man in a bleak yet uplifting story

William Hill Sports Book of the Year award -- the contenders


The winner of the 2011 William Hill Sports Book of the Year will be revealed tomorrow.  For the last week, The Sports Bookshelf has been presenting a run-down of the seven titles on the short list. Today:

Engage: The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson (Simon & Schuster)

THE STORY:

It was March 15, 2005. Matt Hampson, a 20-year-old tight-head prop from the Leicester Tigers club, was taking part in a training with an England Under-21 team that included Ben Foden, Toby Flood and James Haskell. The forwards were in full, contested scrum practice. Not unusually, as 16 hefty men confront each other in a shoving match, the scrum would collapse from time to time.

Thankfully, despite the risks inherent, the players normally pick themselves up unscathed and resume practice. On this occasion, however, it was different.

By some freak of physics, the full force of this collapse ended up being borne by Matt Hampson’s neck. In an instant, he suffered a dislocation that trapped his spinal chord.  He was saved from dying on the field because Tony Spreadbury, the referee supervising the session, happened also to be a paramedic, but the damage already done had paralysed Hampson from the neck down.

Paul Kimmage, the Sunday Times journalist, visited Hampson as he recuperated. His brilliant piece -- headlined ‘One Tragic Day’ -- won him the Sports Journalists’ Association interviewer of the year award for the third year in succession.  They struck up a friendship and now Kimmage has told Hampson’s full story, in all its harrowing detail, from the build-up to the fateful day, the drama of the accident itself, the incredibly long rehabilitation, to his struggle to adjust to what passes for him as a normal life.

The result has been hailed as a story that reveals the true hellishness of personal disaster on the scale that befell Hampson as well as the astonishing capacity of one human being to make the best of what little he had left -- in a physical sense -- and to do so without seeking pity.

Hampson now lives in a converted barn in a Leicestershire village, custom made for him by his father, Phil.  He has a ventilator attached to him by a pipe that breathes for him 21,600 times in every 24 hour period.  Yet he manages to pursue a life in which he offers help, advice and support to other victims of serious injury and disability, in particular in a sports context, through his charity The Matt Hampson Foundation (http://www.matthampsonfoundation.org/)

THE CRITICS:

"Engage is a book that will make you laugh, make you cry, make you gasp: it’s the full emotional rollercoaster. I read the 395 pages in two days."
-- Rachel Simmonite, therugbyblog.co.uk Read more…

“Despite this young man’s remarkable character, Engage’s honest, unblinking approach to the scale of his disaster makes this book much bleaker (and better) than just an uplifting triumph-over-adversity tale…a genuinely outstanding book.”
-- Brian Schofield, the Sunday Times. Read more…

"It is typical of Hampson that he treats the very worst experiences as some loony endurance course. The full black humour of his situation unfolds in his autobiography, a hellish, inspiring and often hilarious account of his struggle.”
-- Elizabeth Grice, Daily Telegraph. Read more…

THE AUTHOR:

Paul Kimmage, a former professional cyclist, has already won one William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award for Rough Ride, which exposed drug use in his sport and made his name as a writer.   He also won acclaim for writing the autobiographical Full Time: The Secret Life of Tony Cascarino on behalf of the Republic of Ireland footballer.

* * * * * * * 

The William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award is the world's longest established and most valuable literary sports-writing prize. As well as a £23,000 cash prize, the winning author will receive a £2,000 William Hill bet, a hand-bound copy of their book, and a day at the races. 

The judging panel for this year’s award consists of broadcaster and writer John Inverdale; award-winning journalist Hugh McIlvanney; broadcaster Danny Kelly; and columnist and author, Alyson Rudd. Chairman of the panel is John Gaustad, co-creator of the award and founder of the Sportspages bookshop. 

The winner will be announced at a lunchtime reception at Waterstone’s Piccadilly (London), Europe’s largest bookstore, on Monday 28th November.

READ ABOUT THE OTHER SIX CONTENDERS:

A Life Too Short

The Ghost Runner

32 Programmes
Racing Through the Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar
Into the Arena: The World of the Spanish Bullfight
Among The Fans

The shortlist in full:

1. Among the Fans: From Ashes to the Arrows, a Year of Watching the Watchers by Patrick Collins (Wisden Sports Writing)

2. Into The Arena: The World of the Spanish Bullfight by Alexander Fiske-Harrison (Profile Books)

3. The Ghost Runner: The Tragedy of the Man They Couldn't Stop by Bill Jones (Mainstream Publishing)

4. Engage: The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson by Paul Kimmage (Simon & Schuster)

5. Racing Through the Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar by David Millar (Orion)

6. A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke by Ronald Reng (Yellow Jersey Press)

7. 32 Programmes by Dave Roberts (Bantam Press)

Buy Engage: The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson direct from Amazon 

More on the 2011 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award

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The watchers watched: Collins delivers a masterclass in the art of sharp and witty observation

William Hill Sports Book of the Year award -- the contenders


The winner of the 2011 William Hill Sports Book of the Year will be revealed on Monday.  This week, The Sports Bookshelf presents a run-down of the seven titles on the short list. Today:

Among the Fans (Wisden Sports Writing)

THE STORY:

Patrick Collins has been writing about sport for almost half a century, for the last 30 years as chief sports writer for the Mail on Sunday.  For the most part during that time -- as you would expect -- his eyes have been focused on the field of play.

He has reported on Olympic Games and World Cups, countless Test matches, rugby internationals and world title fights, and described the action in such consistently stylish and well-judged prose that he has gathered almost as many awards as he has had years in the newspaper business, including the ultimate accolade of sports journalist of the year on five occasions.

Yet for Among the Fans, Collins turned his focus away from the arena, or at least from the action taking place, in order to observe the participants without whom the great events he has witnessed would have been merely for the amusement of those taking part -- the supporters.

During a year or so on the road, Collins watched the watchers at some of sport’s great showpieces -- the World Cup in South Africa, an Ashes Test in Adelaide, Wimbledon, the Cheltenham Festival among them -- but also in the rather less rarefied atmosphere of a point-to-point meeting in rural Sussex, a dog track in Kent and a speedway meeting in Eastbourne.  He devotes one chapter to a night spent at the BBC in West London, sitting in while Alan Green converses with the nation on the 606 phone-in.

The end result is an effortless read from the writer most respected and admired by his peers, sometimes gentle and affectionate in its observations, at other times unapologetically critical, yet with the barbs carried always by a clever turn of phrase rather than trenchant, boorish rant.

Among the Fans is a first offering from Wisden Sports Writing, a new imprint from Bloomsbury that promises a small and very selective annual catalogue. Collins has set a high bar for titles that follow.

THE CRITICS:

“He has a way of skewering his targets without forfeiting his own civility…during a lovingly detailed description of the annual Canterbury cricket festival, he steps aside to sketch the late EW Swanton, the grand panjandrum of the Daily Telegraph's cricket coverage: ‘An aristocrat by everything but birth, he acquired a repertoire of patrician airs which were so convincing they might almost have been authentic‘.”
-- Richard Williams, the Guardian. Read more…

“A deeply enjoyable and often very funny book which should persuade those who didn't know it already just how brilliantly readable Collins is.”

-- Simon Redfern, the Independent on Sunday. Read more…

“A masterful piece of writing… is a light and humorous read, in the style popularised by Bill Bryson, rather than an analytical tract.”

-- Simon Briggs, the Daily Telegraph. Read more…

THE AUTHOR:

Patrick Collins began his newspaper career with the Kentish Mercury in 1962. He subsequently wrote for the News of the World, the London Evening News and the London Evening Standard before becoming chief sports writer for the Mail on Sunday in 1982, a position he still holds.

* * * * * * * 

The William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award is the world's longest established and most valuable literary sports-writing prize. As well as a £23,000 cash prize, the winning author will receive a £2,000 William Hill bet, a hand-bound copy of their book, and a day at the races. 

The judging panel for this year’s award consists of broadcaster and writer John Inverdale; award-winning journalist Hugh McIlvanney; broadcaster Danny Kelly; and columnist and author, Alyson Rudd. Chairman of the panel is John Gaustad, co-creator of the award and founder of the Sportspages bookshop. 

The winner will be announced at a lunchtime reception at Waterstone’s Piccadilly (London), Europe’s largest bookstore, on Monday 28th November.

RELATED READING:

A Life Too Short

The Ghost Runner

32 Programmes
Racing Through the Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar
Into the Arena: The World of the Spanish Bullfight

The shortlist in full:

1. Among the Fans: From Ashes to the Arrows, a Year of Watching the Watchers by Patrick Collins (Wisden Sports Writing)

2. Into The Arena: The World of the Spanish Bullfight by Alexander Fiske-Harrison (Profile Books)

3. The Ghost Runner: The Tragedy of the Man They Couldn't Stop by Bill Jones (Mainstream Publishing)

4. Engage: The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson by Paul Kimmage (Simon & Schuster)

5. Racing Through the Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar by David Millar (Orion)

6. A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke by Ronald Reng (Yellow Jersey Press)

7. 32 Programmes by Dave Roberts (Bantam Press)

Buy Among the Fans direct from Amazon 

More on the 2011 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award

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