William Hill Sports Book of the Year longlist announced

The longlist for the most prestigious sports writing prize of the year features heavy hitters and gentle histories.

Former Wales and British Lions captain Gareth Thomas‘ autobiography Proud – which in part tells of his lifelong struggle to admit his true sexuality to himself and the world - faces off against the heavyweight autobiography from Mike Tyson, Undisputed Truth.

Other biographies and memoirs on this year’s list include Olympic gold medallist and World No.1 cyclist Nicole Cooke‘s The Breakaway; endurance athlete Kilian Jornet‘s Run or Die; and Alone, Bill Jones‘ biography of game-changing figure skater John Curry.

As ever, the William Hill Sports Book of the Year nominees cover a wide range of sports. There’s Anna Krien‘s exposé of the rape trial of an Aussie Rules footballer, Night Games; Simon Inglis‘ Played in London, which looks at the capital’s love affair with sport throughout the ages; Love Game, Elizabeth Wilson‘s history of the rise of tennis’ popularity; and An American Caddie in St. Andrews, Oliver Horovitz‘s comic confessions from life on and off the fairways of Scotland’s famous course.

However, football books make up six of the fifteen on this year’s longlist with books on the lives of Bobby More, Duncan Ferguson, Paul Vaessen and Lutz Pfannenstiel as well as Paul Rees‘ look at West Bromwich Albion’s Cyrille Regis, Laurie Cunningham and Brendon Batson who in the late seventies became the first black players to be fielded in a British team.

Finally for those more interested in watching than doing, there’s Floodlights and Touchlines - Alan Pattullo‘s history of sports spectators.

“This diverse range of topics is testament to the fact that sports-writing is in rude health.” said Graham Sharpe of William Hill, co-founder of the award. Sharpe added that he was “very pleased to see that three of the 15 longlisted titles are written by women – a first for a William Hill longlist,” and that he hoped to see “an even greater share of voice for female writers in the future”.

The shortlist will be announced on 24th October.

The winner of the 26th William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award will be announced on 27th November and will receive £25,000, a £2,500 William Hill bet, a hand-bound copy of their book and a day at the races.

The longlist in full