Friend of the Hub, Anthony Clavane's Promised Land is now one of the eight books that the public can vote for as best overall sports book of the year
The British Sports Book Awards have selected eight titles as their best of 2010, and you can
vote for your favourite on their website. At the end of the month, the most popular choice will be named as the overall winner.
Each of the eight candidates won one of the categories at the BSBA dinner at the Savoy Hotel on Monday night, and they are led by the winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year, Beware of the Dog by the Telegraph’s own Brian Moore.
Moore’s candid, often shocking memoir was named best autobiography by the BSBA panel. Published by Simon & Schuster, the book covers very different territory to Moore’s earlier, somewhat nuts-and-bolts chronicle of his onfield career.
All the rugby is here, of course, but so are his experiences of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of a trusted teacher, and his emotional turmoil as he tried to trace the real parents who had given him up for adoption.
Best biography went to Trautmann’s Journey, Catrine Clay’s chronicle of Bert Trautmann’s terrifying wartime experiences in the Fallschirmjager – or German paratroop corps – with just a smidgeon of his 15-year career as Manchester City’s greatest goalkeeper thrown in.
Trautmann’s Journey was one of three triumphs for Yellow Jersey Press, the only significant publishing house dedicated to sport, and a reliable source of fascinating and imaginative titles.
They also won best rugby book with Tom English’s rollicking The Grudge, which explores the 1990 Calcutta Cup showdown between England and Scotland at Murrayfield, and best football book for Anthony Clavane’s magnificent Promised Land.
A fans-eye view of Leeds United over the years, Promised Land is an instant classic, standing comparison with Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch, although Clavane’s book concerns itself more with the cityscape that surrounds his beloved football club and less with the author’s own neuroses.
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