Back Of The Net Sport Books Of The Year
LIONESS
(Seven Dials £20, pp260)
That was quite a day for the Lionesses back in July when England won the women's European Championship. It was one of the most watched TV programmes of the year and many of the players became household names. has just won I'm A Celebrity; and Chloe Kelly, who tore up the pitch in her sports bra after scoring the winning goal, became an instant star.
Now one of the most talented players in the team, Arsenal's Beth Mead, has written this honest memoir from her time as a kid in Sunderland to being named Player Of The Tournament at . It is a smashing, fun read.
Arsenal's Beth Mead, has written this honest memoir from her time as a kid in Sunderland to being named Player Of The Tournament at Euro 2022
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(Constable £22, 314pp)
Who knew that the rights to run the Tour de France are owned by one reclusive French family, the Amaurys? They take millions of Euros home in dividends — ‘le fric' means the dough. The compelling story moves effortlessly from the empty boulevards of German-occupied Paris to the heart of the City of London, from a quiet house in Tring, Herts, to the 21 lungbusting hairpin turns on the ascent to Alpe d'Huez. One of the best books you will read this year.
CLOSER TO THE EDGE by Leo Houlding (Headline £20, 352pp)
CLOSER TO THE EDGE
(Headline £20, 352pp)
In summer 2020 a photograph went viral. It showed a three-year-old boy, with a shock of platinum hair and a huge grin, wearing a climbing harness and helmet high on the north-east ridge of the Piz Badile, a monster rock climb some 4,000ft high in Switzerland.
He was Jackson, the son of Leo Houlding, a professional climber and by general acclaim Britain's most successful explorer. The photo is printed in this palm-sweating memoir of Houlding's extraordinary exploits, from extreme rock climbing to remote mountain exploration, and from base jumping to trekking in Antarctica.
The chapter describing Jackson's climb is disarmingly entitled Family Outings. Also present was Houlding's wife Jess, who is evidently not a woman of nervous disposition.
This is a must for anyone who believes that a life without adventure isn't really a life worth living.
BERYL: IN SEARCH OF BRITAIN'S GREATEST ATHLETE
(Pursuit £20, 340pp)
Hands up if, like me, you had never heard of Beryl Burton. Shame on us. The truth is she was a cycling phenomenon, a ferociously competitive Yorkshire girl, who broke the women's and men's 12-hour endurance records on the same day in 1967, famously handing her male rival a Liquorice Allsort as she passed him after more than 11 hours in the saddle.
She was world road race champion, and swept the board in all the various British national championships. A lifelong amateur, she conquered the world while working on her rhubarb farm near Leeds. Jeremy Wilson brings alive this extraordinary woman's achievements (and problems, too — she wasn't always the best mother) in this fabulous biography.
LIONESS by Beth Mead (Seven Dials £20, pp260)
C. L. R. JAMES: A LIFE BEYOND THE BOUNDARIES
(Constable £25.00, 490pp)
Historian, revolutionary and cricket writer Cyril Lionel Robert James was one of the most radical voices of the last century. A son of Trinidad and born in the last years of the Victorian age, he played cricket with Learie Constantine, debated with Trotsky as well as John Arlott, https://sportsjournal.blob.core.windows.net/blog/Samiya-Arzoo-All-You-Should-Know-About-Pak-Cricketer-Hasan-Alis-Indian-Wife.html and was recognised as one of the greatest Black British intellectuals.
Impossibly handsome, a mesmerising orator and a notable seducer, he was also the author of Beyond A Boundary, now recognised as one of the finest books about cricket — as well as family, race and the West Indies — ever written. Now this extraordinary polymath has been honoured with a biography to suit his talents.
JORDAN HENDERSON: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY
£25, 328pp)
Henderson, an England stalwart and monumentally successful Liverpool captain, is one of the country's most respected players. Captain, leader, legend — and a really good bloke as well. Togetherness on the pitch and at home is very important to him.
This is a brilliantly told story with a uniquely vivid sense of what it is like on the pitch in matches of extreme importance. The quality's not surprising, really, as Henderson has been helped by two top Mail writers, Oliver Holt and Dominic King. The perfect book for all football fans, not just Liverpool supporters.
THE CUP by Richard Whitehead (Pitch £25, 255pp)
THE CUP
(Pitch £25, 255pp)
Forget birthdays and Christmas. For many of us, FA Cup Day used to be the most important day of the year: six hours of TV from the road to Wembley, on board the team coaches and Abide With Me on the pitch, to the trophy ceremony. Magic.
No longer the same, sadly, not least because of the unstoppable rise of the Premier League and the staggering number of matches shown live on TV.
This beautiful book reminds us that, much more than just football, the FA Cup was a huge part of our national life, featuring everyone from George Formby to Paul McCartney, Margaret Thatcher to the Gallagher brothers.
PHIL: THE RIP-ROARING BIOGRAPHY OF GOLF'S MOST COLOURFUL SUPERSTAR
(Simon & Schuster £20, 250pp)
You may regard golf as a colossal bore and golfers as overpaid divas trying to get richer, and who could blame you? But this riotous book could change your mind.
Phil Mickelson, a burly, jovial left-hander happily married to his college sweetheart and with a penchant for fast food and beer, was the antithesis of his great rival Tiger Woods, who was superfit and savagely disciplined (apart from in his private life, as it turned out).
Shipnuck is a long-time acquaintance of Mickelson, and this is biography as a full-on gossip. He gives us all the stories about Mickelson's darker side, notably his gambling and his outbursts. But no one can get away from Phil's sunny outlook, his goofy grin, his strenuous charity work and his sportsmanship. An engaging read all round.
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