Weekend Review - Tue 29th May

• 29th May 2007 at 10:18:20 BST by Liam Doyle
• 1 comment

The genius of Clough, John Major and drugs and cycling....again.

It's too easy to say that there'll never be another like him (indeed there's a certain someone at Chelsea who's trying their hardest) but Brian Clough still manages to captivate in a way that few managers do. There's been plenty written about him, not least by the man himself, but the latest offering, Duncan Hamilton's Provided You Don't Kiss Me, is receiving very favourable reviews. Hamilton worked for the city's local paper, The Nottingham Evening Post, and as such had daily access to Clough. That has helped gain a wonderful insight to the man and his book receives plaudits from both Jim White in The Telegraph and Anton Rippon on the Sports Journalists' Association website.

John Major's recent work, More Than A Game, is again reviewed positively in The Telegraph and The Observer. Major mustn't be used to such favourable headlines - maybe he should have produced the book in the middle of his premiership.

At the other end of the cricket scale and about as far removed from Major's ideal of warm beer and genteel afternoons is Paul Smith. With a career that veered wildly from achievement to self destruction, Smith has plenty to tell and Wasted? does just that. As part of the promotion for the book, he's interviewed at length by Andrew Longmore in The Sunday Times.

The recent announcement from Bjarne Riis on his use of EPO is assessed by Paul Kimmage in The Sunday Times. Kimmage, of course, is the author of the the classic Rough Ride, that brutal expose of life on the Tour and a worthy winner of the 1990 William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award. Rough Ride is being reissued shortly to coincide with the Tour's start in London and it will also have an updated chapter on developments since the original edition was written.

In the article, there's also mention of a recent publication from Jeff d’Hont, a tour massuer in the early - mid 90' and his revealations of drug use - an updated Willy Voet if you like. To date, it doesn't look like it has found a UK publisher but if that changes, we'll let you know.

There's a nice round up of Chess's contribution to literature (and film) in The Independent. There's also minor reviews for Perfect 10 in The Observer, Double Fault in The Telegraph and Hate Mail From Cheerleaders in Publishers Weekly.