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Acclaimed Biography of Fred Trueman wins prestigious Wisden Book of the Year

The 2012 Wisden Book of the Year Award has been won by Chris Waters for his superb biography of Fred Trueman.

Fred Trueman: The Authorised Biography, published by Aurum Press, was released last October to glowing reviews.

Author and Mail on Sunday columnist Leo McKinstry, regarded himself as an oustanding sports biographer, described it as “one of the finest sports books of recent years”, while the distinguished veteran journalist and cricket author David Foot called it a “brilliant and unsparing portrait”.

The winner was chosen by Harry Pearson, the columnist and author, whose book Slipless in Settle last year won the MCC-Cricket Society Book of the Year Award for which Fred Trueman: The Authorised Biography is also a contender. The winner of the 2012 award is due to be announced this evening.

The book, Waters’s first and a project he undertook with painstaking thoroughness, has also been short-listed for Cricket Book of the Year at the British Sports Book Awards, to be announced next month.

Chris Waters, the cricket correspondent of the Yorkshire Post, was kind enough to talk to The Sports Bookshelf about the book as he was completing the manuscript last year. Read the full, fascinating interview...


Past Winners of Wisden Book of the Year


Since 2003, the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack has named a Book of the Year, selected by their guest book reviewer, representing a personal view of the best new cricket book seen during the year.

Past winners have been:

2011 -- The Cricketer’s Progress: Meadowland to Mumbai, by Eric Midwinter
2010 -- Harold Larwood: The Authorised Biography of the World’s Fastest Bowler, by Duncan Hamilton
2009 -- Sweet Summers: The Classic Cricket Writing of J. M. Kilburn, edited by Duncan Hamilton
2008 -- Tom Cartwright: The Flame Still Burns, by Stephen Chalke
2007 -- Brim Full of Passion, by Wasim Khan
2006 -- Ashes 2005, by Gideon Haigh
2005 -- On and Off the Field, by Ed Smith
2004 -- No Coward Soul, by Stephen Chalke and Derek Hodgson
2003 -- Bodyline Autopsy, by David Frith

Buy Fred Trueman: The Authorised Biography direct from amazon.co.uk

See the full shortlist for the British Sports Book Awards 2012

Browse more cricket books at The Sports Bookshelf Shop

Coming soon: spotlight on all the contenders for Cricket Book of the Year.

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