2023 William Hill Sports Book of the Year – Longlist

The William Hill Sports Book of the Year award is dedicated to rewarding excellence in sports writing and was first awarded in 1989.

Last year, Beryl: In Search of Britain’s Greatest Athlete by Jeremy Wilson was the winner, with his biography of the cyclist Beryl Burton who dominated her sport much as her male contemporary Eddy Merckx, but with a longevity that surpasses even sporting legends like Muhammad Ali, Serena Williams and Sir Steve Redgrave.

You have to go back to 2015 for the last time a football title took the honour, when David Goldblatt’s The Game of Our Lives: The Meaning and Making of English Football took the top prize.

Flying the flag for the beautiful game in the 2023 shortlist, making up half of the twelve books are:

  • Inshallah United: A story of faith and football by Nooruddean Choudry
  • The Silence of the Stands: Finding the Joy in Football’s Lost Season by Daniel Gray
  • Answered Prayers: England and the 1966 World Cup by Duncan Hamilton
  • Tinseltown: Hollywood and the Beautiful Game – a Match Made in Wrexham by Ian Herbert
  • On Days Like These: The Lost Memoir of a Goalkeeper by Tim Rich
  • Nowhere to Run: The ridiculous life of a semi-professional football club chairman by Jonathan Sayer 

Good luck to all the authors and their books for the shortlist!

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Posted November 27, 2023 by Editor in category "General

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