Our Christmas Selection
Our selection of our favourite titles published in 2007
Well, everyone else does one, so we thought we might as well offer our guide to the best books of the year. Hopefully you'll find something to prick your interest or gain a bit of inspiration in that present search.
The book that's been pronounced as the best book, according to the judges of the William Hill anyway, is Provided You Don't Kiss Me. It helps, of course that the subject, Brian Clough continues to intrigue even if you think there's nothing new to add. However, this is well crafted portrait which blends the personal with the historical and is all the better for doing so. It's a worthy winner and you'll be on safe ground buying for your own interest or indeed if you're looking for a present. Infact if you're just looking for a present, you wouldn't go too far wrong considering any of the other five shortlisted titles.
Considering the opprobrium heaped upon the genre of players' autobiographies, we should redress the balance and highlight one of the outstanding releases this year, John Amaechi's Man In The Middle. This caused a storm when it was released in February and even allowing for the fact that the publicity surrounding its release was purely designed to shock and hype the book, this is well worth reading. It's an intriguing tale of life as a pro athlete from an athlete who's anything but your stereotypical pro.
An honourable mention should also go to Graham Le saux (now there's a sentence I never thought I'd write) whose Left Field also revealed some interesting insight into life as a professional footballer and who wrote movingly about the homophobia he faced in his career. It's probably not a coincidence that both books were penned after the players' retirement. Something that current players could do with considering.....
Someone who hasn't retired officially, although he may now find his coaching opportunities rather more limited, is Duncan Fletcher. Fletcher of course hit the headlines with the infamous Fredo serialisations and this has tended to cloud people's perception of the book. It was entirely his own fault for agreeing to the serialisation in the first place, but if you can get beyond the 'Fredo good, Fletcher bad' camps that the serialisation generated, then you'll find a very interesting insight into the role of a coach and a top level team (we can call them that can't we?). It's a little like Clive Woodward's Winning although without the charts, so if forensic detail about all things coaching is your thing, then take a look.
Now some, particularly Lawrence Dallaglio and Mike Catt, would have us believe that the input of coaches is limited and that it's the players who are primarily responsible for performance. So if you want to read how it was the players "wot won it" (yes, I know they didn't actually win, but it still felt like some form of triumph) then take a look at It's In the Blood and Landing On My Feet.
Coaches who most would agree that have had an enormous impact on their clubs are Arsene Wenger, Alex Ferguson and Matt Busby. Interesting portraits of all appeared in the form of Arsene Wenger (you need to get beyond the mundane title), This Is The One and a very welcome reissue of A Strange Kind of Glory.
This year also saw the death of some notable sportswriters including Ian Wooldridge, David Halberstam and Norman Mailer, although of course, the latter two's span was much wider than merely sport. A wonderful collection of Wooldridge's articles has been compiled in Searching For Heroes and there's some fantastic stuff in it. I didn't view much of his work on a weekly basis because I couldn't face the awfulness of The Mail but it's an extremely nice tribute to a highly regarded journalist. There's a tribute collection for Halberstam planned for release in May 2008 but in the meantime, why not take another look at Summer of 49 or The Fight to remind yourself of their mastery of their craft. Other anthologies worth looking at include James Lawton's On Football, the continually wonderful Best American Sports Writing and The Gigantic Book of Fishing Stories.
Other titles that we've particularly enjoyed throughout the year include (in no particular order); A Very British Coop, The Match, You'll Win Nothing With Kids, Running The Table, Master of the Ring, Champagne Rugby, Steroid Nation, The History of Drug Use in Sport, The Wrestling (it's a reissue but still good), Tales From Q School, In Search of Robert Millar, Cars at Speed, Reuters: Sport in the 21st Century and Paris Roubaix. All very personal but hopefully you won't find too many dud choices in those.
And Finally....
Whilst Christmas is a time for giving, it can also be a time for receiving.....crap presents. If you're unlucky enough to open the wrapping paper and discover Peter Crouch, Monty Panesar, Graham Poll or Seve, then simply smile and say with all the honesty you can muster "Oh. You really shouldn't have......"
If after all of that you're still confused or need a personal recommendation, feel free to contact us and we'll try to come up with a suitable choice.
Happy giving and happy reading!
About This Entry
‘Our Christmas Selection’ was posted by Liam Doyle on Thu, 6th December 2007 at 22:05:50 GMT and filed under book reviews.
