Weekend Review - Mon 9th July

• 9th Jul 2007 at 13:08:12 BST by Liam Doyle
• 0 comments

Federer, Pyjamas and George Plimpton

With so much actual sport in the UK over the weekend, it looks like all the journos decided to joing the rest of us in watching in some of the fabulous events on offer. Consequently there's not too much to report from this week's round up.

As he was in imperious form once again, we should start with Roger Federer. The recent biography on him Roger Federer: The Quest for Perfection is reviewed by Andrew Baker in The Telegraph. Although it seemed a curiously low key release, it is by all accounts a detailed and studied portrait. It also has the advatange that it's been written by a Swiss journalist who's followed his career from the start. Whether that's enough to help solve the perrenial problem of tennis books failing to sell is another matter.

We're still in love with the tour. The prologue and first stage have been and gone and, despite the absence of British winners, there's been much to enjoy. Despite the reservations of some, both days seemed to have passed without incident and the huge crowds surely reflect well on Britain's apetite for sport generally and cycling in particular. The Times produced their list of Tour books to look out for and it contained all the usual suspects, including Le Tour and Rough Ride. The Times also has a separate brief review of Blazing Saddles.

Surf Nation gets a hugely positive review in the Sunday Times. The Pyjama Game is also positively reviewed by Robert Twigger, author of the award winning Angry White Pyjamas, also in the Sunday Times. The Sunday Times have a smaller review of A Very British Coop which despite seeming positive ends by declaring that it's "curiously depressing". I have to say that I completely disagree - I think it's wonderful and gloriously uplifting.

Amir Khan is interviewed in the Independent as part of his publicity tour for both his upcoming fight and the paperback release of his autobiography. As has probably become clear over the last few months, I'm not a fan of the early released autobiography. Whilst I agree that Khan has a potentially fascinating tale to tell, I'm not convinced that an autobiography at the age of 21 is the most appropriate way to do it. Still, others may disagree and the paperback is out now.

The Observer (apologies for the general link - they don't seem to want to provide a link to their Extra Time section) continues their excellent series of forgotten sporting venues. This week they take a look at Aintree's Motor Racing circuit. There's plenty more covering this largely forgotten circuit in the detailed history The Unfulfilled Dream: Motor Racing at Aintree. We've still got a couple of copies of the book available at the reduced price of £15.00.

Paper Cuts in the NY Times mentions a site devoted to the work of George Plimpton. As I'm sure you're aware, Plimpton was responsible for some cracking sports books and many consider Paper Lion to be one of the very best - so much so that it was at number 8 in Sports Illustrated's Top 100 of all time. If you're not as familiar with his work there's a couple of excellent anthologies such as The Best of Plimpton and Plimpton on Sports worth looking at. His books aren't perhaps as available as they should be, but all of the above are currently available and worth checking out.