THE LONGLIST FOR the 2018 William Hill Sports Book of the Year has been unveiled with Irish sport represented by books by Moire O’Sullivan, Paul Ferris and Paul D Gibson.
O’Sullivan is included in the long list for ‘Bump, Bike & Baby: Mummy’s Gone Adventure Racing’ which includes accounts of her national series wins in 2014, 2016 and 2017 and how she managed to continue training while pregnant.
Gibson delivers the compelling and tragic ‘The Lost Soul of Eamonn Magee’, which earned much coverage this year after the troubled subject’s interviews with Donald McRae and Second Captains.
One-time Newcastle United starlet Ferris, meanwhile, makes the list through his memoir ‘The Boy on the Shed’ which charts his journey through sectarian surroundings to rub shoulders with Jack Charlton, Bobby Robson, Kevin Keegan among many more luminaries of Geordie football history.
A novel features in the longlist with cricket providing the backdrop for The Test, while Fiji’s sevens rugby exploits, adventure racing and darts make up a wide variety of subject matter.
This year marks the 30th William Hill Sports Book prize and the authors who make the trimmed-down shortlist on 23 October will receive £3,000 and a £1,000 free bet. The winner, who will be announced on 27 November, will win a £2,000 free bet and £30,000.
The judging panel consists of journalists Hugh McIlvanney, Mark Lawson, John Inverdale, Danny Kelly and Alyson Rudd along with former professional footballer Clarke Carlisle and chair Graham Sharpe.
“Over the last 30 years this award has been responsible for raising the quality and breadth of subject matter of books about sport, which was the aim from day one. Since our first year, in 1989, over 3000 books have been entered for the award,” says Sharpe.
The longlist in full (alphabetically by author’s surname):
1. Fear and Loathing on the Oche by King Adz (Yellow Jersey, Penguin Random House)
2. Tiger Woods by Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian (Simon & Schuster)
3. Life to the Limit: My Autobiography by Jenson Button (Blink, Bonnier Books)
4. State of Play: Under the Skin of the Modern Game by Michael Calvin (Century, Penguin Random House)
5. This Girl Ran: Tales of a Party Girl Turned Triathlete by Helen Croydon (Summersdale Publishers)
6. The Boy on the Shed by Paul Ferris (Hodder & Stoughton)
7. The Lost Soul of Eamonn Magee by Paul D. Gibson (Mercier Press)
8. You’ll Never Walk by Andy Grant (deCoubertin Books)
9. A Boy in the Water by Tom Gregory (Particular Books, Penguin Random House)
10. The Card by Steve Hill (Ockley Books)
11. Berlin 1936 Sixteen Days in August by Oliver Hilmes (The Bodley Head, Penguin Random House)
12. Chasing Points: A Season on the Pro Tennis Circuit by Gregory Howe (Pitch Publishing)
13. The Test by Nathan Leamon (Constable, Little Brown)
14. The Mountains Are Calling: Running in the High Places of Scotland by Jonny Muir (Sandstone Press)
15. Bump, Bike & Baby: Mummy’s Gone Adventure Racing by Moire O’Sullivan (Sandstone Press)
16. Sevens Heaven: The Beautiful Chaos of Fiji’s Olympic Dream by Ben Ryan (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, The Orion Publishing Group)
17. Heads Up: My Life Story by Alan Smith (Constable, Little, Brown)
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