The William Hill Sports Book of the Year is an annual British sports literary award sponsored by bookmaker William Hill. The award is dedicated to rewarding excellence in

sports writing Sports journalism is a form of writing that reports on matters pertaining to sporting topics and competitions. Sports journalism started in the early 1800s when it was targeted to the social elite and transitioned into an integral part of the n ...

. It was first awarded in 1989, and was devised by Graham Sharpe of William Hill, and John Gaustad, founder of the Sports Pages bookshop. As of 2020, the prize for winning the award is £30,000 and a leather-bound copy of their book. Each of the shortlisted authors receives £3,000. Commenting on the prize's prestige, the 2005 winner Gary Imlach said "although it is a sports book prize, it has the prestige and the commercial clout to lift the winning book out of the sport section". As of 2020, the judging panel is chaired by Alyson Rudd and includes retired professional footballer and former chairman of the Professional Footballer’s Association, Clarke Carlisle; five-time Olympic medallist and rower Dame Katherine Grainger; broadcaster and writer John Inverdale; broadcaster Danny Kelly and journalist and broadcaster

Mark Lawson Mark Gerard Lawson is an English journalist, broadcaster and author. Specialising in culture and the arts, he is best known for presenting the flagship BBC Radio 4 arts programme '' Front Row'' between 1998 and 2014.Padraic Flanaga"Mark Lawson ...

History

Paul Kimmage Paul Kimmage (born 7 May 1962 in Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish sports journalist and former amateur and professional road bicycle racer, who was road race champion of Ireland in 1981, and competed in the 1984 Olympic Games. He wrote for '' T ...

was the first author to win both the Irish (2011) and International awards (1990). In 2010, Duncan Hamilton, a winner twice in the previous three years, was again included in the shortlist, although on this occasion, when the award was announced on 30 November in London, the prize was won by Brian Moore, the former England rugby union international, for his autobiography, ''Beware of the Dog''. In 2011, there was a "surprise inclusion" to the shortlist of ''Engage: The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson'', a biography of quadriplegic

Matt Hampson Matthew "Hambo" Hampson (born is an English former rugby union prop who became paralysed from the neck down (C4/5 tetraplegic), after a scrummaging accident when practising with England under-21 squad in March 2005. His condition requires pe ...

, by 1990 winner

, despite it not being included on the longlist. The shortlist also included a book on

bullfighting Bullfighting is a physical contest that involves a bullfighter attempting to subdue, immobilize, or kill a bull, usually according to a set of rules, guidelines, or cultural expectations. There are several variations, including some forms w ...

, ''Into The Arena: The World of the Spanish Bullfight'' by Alexander Fiske-Harrison, despite journalists including Fiske-Harrison himself arguing that bullfighting was not a sport, leading to the employment of security for the first time at the ceremony at

Waterstones Waterstones, formerly Waterstone's, is a British book retailer that operates 311 shops, mainly in the United Kingdom and also other nearby countries. As of February 2014, it employs around 3,500 staff in the UK and Europe. An average-sized Wa ...

Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl's Cour ...

. In the end the prize went to ''A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke'', about

Robert Enke Robert Enke (24 August 1977 – 10 November 2009) was a German professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He played for Mönchengladbach, Benfica, and Barcelona, but made the majority of his appearances for Bundesliga side Hannover 96 ...

who committed suicide, by Ronald Reng. Duncan Hamilton is the only author to have won the award three times, first in 2007, second in 2009 and most recently in 2019. Acclaimed boxing author Donald McRae has twice won the award, in 1996 and 2002.

Winners

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

William Hill Sports Book of the Year
official website British literary awards Sports writing awards Books about sports William Hill (bookmaker) Awards established in 1989 1989 establishments in the United Kingdom