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Vote for your favourite sports book and win £50 in book tokens

Why not take the chance to win £50 in National Book Tokens by voting for your favourite sports book from among the winners at the British Sports Book Awards, announced earlier this month!  Follow the link to an online form to register your vote an be entered automatically into a draw.
To help you chose, over the next few days the Sports Bookshelf will highlight each of the eight contenders to be named the overall British Sports Book of the Year. Today's category winner:

BEST AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Brian Moore’s bleakly honest life story had already collected the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award for 2010 before it was announced as winner of the Best Autobiography category at the British Sports Book Awards.

The former England rugby hooker‘s candid and unsettling memoir tracks the highs and lows of a highly successful rugby career but goes much further, revealing painful memories of sexual abuse suffered as a schoolboy and the feelings of rejection he encountered as an adopted child, as well as later battles with depression and drink.

That said, Moore has been applauded for his presentation of those revelations, which do not dominate the book as much as they grabbed the headlines. While the vivid descriptions of his state of mind make compelling reading, there are enough rugby stories to satisfy most appetites. Moore has been hailed as an exceptional writer and his acceptance speech conveyed his pride at being recognised for his work.

Moore, or 'Pitbull' as he came to be known, established himself as one of the game's hard men and has subsequently earned a reputation as an equally uncompromising commentator, never afraid to tell it as he sees it. Beware of the Dog: Rugby's Hard Man Reveals All, is published by Simon & Schuster.

Moore, at primary school, being sexually abused by a male teacher…is an unsettling revelation, not just because of the criminal misery Moore and others endured, but also because its exposure here is placed in that icky middle ground between a cathartic personal statement and a sales-stimulating scoop. Disdain for that should be directed at the editors — Moore, to his credit, just lays out the facts, accepts that the experience damaged his relationships but didn’t define his life, then moves on to the rugby. --- Brian Schofield, The Sunday Times. Read more...

Winners in the other categories were
Best Biography -- Trautmann's Journey, by Catrine Clay
Best Football Book -- Promised Land, by Anthony Clavane
Best Cricket Book -- Slipless in Settle, by Harry Pearson
Best Rugby Book -- The Grudge, by Tom English
Best New Writer -- Bounce, by Matthew Syed
Best Racing Book -- The Story of Your Life, by James Lambie
Best Illustrated Title -- '61 The Spurs Double, by Doug Cheeseman, Martin Cloake and Adam Powley

Vote HERE for your favourite book from the winners of each of the award categories at the British Sports Book Awards at and you'll be entered -- free of charge -- in a draw to win £50 of National Book Tokens. Closing date June 12th. Full terms and conditions on the voting form.


VOTE NOW

To browse more books on rugby, visit The Sports Bookshelf Shop.

Read about the other award winners.

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