TV spotlight for British Sports Book Awards?

BRITISH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS 2012

Full shortlists revealed

The winners of this year's British Sports Book Awards could enjoy unprecedented exposure with the organisers hoping to reach an agreement with Sky TV for televised highlights of the awards dinner on May 21.

It is anticipated that a 30-minute show based on the Savoy Hotel ceremony, featuring interviews with award winners and sports stars, will be broadcast by Sky Sports on Friday May 25, to be repeated through the weekend of May 26 and 27.

The shortlist has been announced for this year's awards, hosted by the National Sporting Club and now in their 10th year.

Early favourites include Ronald Reng's brilliant A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke (Yellow Jersey), which is nominated for Best Biography/Autobiography category as well as for Football Book of the Year,  Chris Waters' fine biography of Fred Trueman (Aurum), which is a contender for Cricket Book of the Year, and New Writer of the Year, and Engage: The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson (Simon & Schuster), which earns author Paul Kimmage nominations in the biography and Rugby Book of the Year sections.

Jonny Wilkinson's autobiography Jonny (Headline) makes the shortlist in three categories—biography/autobiography, rugby book and best publicity campaign, through Helena Towers at Headline.

Reng's A Life Too Short is also shortlisted for best publicity campaign via Fiona Murphy at Vintage.

Cricketer Graeme Swann's autobiography, The Breaks are Off (Hodder & Stoughton) received two nods across the autobiography/biography and cricket categories.

Golf Book of the Year and Motorsports Book of the Year are two new categories for 2012, with titles including The 100 Greatest Ever Golfers, by Andy Farrell (Elliott & Thompson), and Driving on the Edge: The Art and Science of Race Driving, by Michael Krumm (Icon Publishing) nominated in each category respectively.

The winners will be announced at the Savoy Hotel in London on 21st May. All category winners will then be entered into an online public vote to find the overall British Sports Book of the Year.  Each winning title will be promoted in the run up to Father’s Day, with the winner announced on June 11.

Come back to The Sports Bookshelf for more details of the nominees, with the spotlight falling in turn on each of the major award categories.

The shortlists in full:

Autobiography / Biography of the Year


A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke, by Ronald Reng (Yellow Jersey)
Engage: The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson, by Paul Kimmage (Simon & Schuster)
How Not To Be A Professional Footballer, by Paul Merson (HarperSport)
Jonny: My Autobiography, by Jonny Wilkinson (Headline)
Racing Through The Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar, by David Millar (Orion)
Red: My Autobiography, by Gary Neville (Bantam Press)
Taking A Punt On My Life, by Willie Thorne (Vision Sports Publishing)
The Breaks Are Off, by Graeme Swann (Hodder & Stoughton)


Cricket Book of the Year


Fred Trueman: The Authorised Biography, by Chris Waters (Aurum)
Ian Botham: The Power and the Glory, by Simon Wilde (Simon & Schuster)
Jack Hobbs: England's Greatest Cricketer, by Leo McKinstry (Yellow Jersey)
The Breaks Are Off,  by Graeme Swann (Hodder & Stoughton)
Tony Greig: A Reappraisal of English Cricket's Most Controversial Captain,  by David Tossell (Pitch Publishing)


Football Book of the Year


A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke,  by Ronald Reng (Yellow Jersey)
Got, Not Got: The A-Z of Lost Football Culture, Treasures and Pleasures, by Derek Hammond & Gary Silke (Pitch Publishing)
I'm Not Really Here: A Life of Two Halves, by Paul Lake (Century)
The Management: Scotland's Great Football Bosses, by Michael Grant & Rob Robertson (Birlinn)
The Smell of Football, by Mick Rathbone (Vision Sports Publishing)
There's a Golden Sky: How Twenty Years of the Premier League has Changed Football Forever, by Ian Ridley (Bloomsbury)


Golf Book of the Year


18 Greatest Irish Golf Holes, by Craig Morrison, Andrew Ross, John Kernick (18 Greatest Golf)
A Journey Through the Annals of The Golfing Annuals 1888-1910, by H R J Grant and D M Wilson (Grant Books)
England's Finest Links: History of Royal Cinque Ports, by David L Dobby (Broadside Publishing)
From Old Tom to the Tiger: The Golf Majors 1860-2010 - the First 150 Years, by Alun Evans (Evanstar Publishing)
Golf Courses, Great Britain and Ireland, by David Cannon (Rizzoli International Publications)
The 100 Greatest Ever Golfers, by Andy Farrell (Elliott & Thompson)
The Caddy Chronicles: Book One - The Rookie Season, by J J McClure (Createspace)


Horse Racing Book of the Year


Beyond the Frame: Great Racing Photographs, by Edward Whitaker (Racing Post Books)
Go Down To The Beaten: Tales of the Grand National, by Chris Pitt (Racing Post Books)
In Search of Running Rein The Amazing Fraud of the 1844 Derby, by Tony Byles (Apex Publishing)
Ireland’s Greatest Racehorses, by Brian O’Connor (Aurum)
My Autobiography, by A P McCoy (Orion)
Winning It Back: The Autobiography of Britain's Biggest Gambler, by Gary Wiltshire (Racing Post Books)


Illustrated Book of the Year


Britain’s Lost Cricket Grounds: The Hallowed Homes of Cricket That Will Never See Another Ball Bowled, by Chris Arnot (Aurum)
From the Boundary's Edge, by Laurence Griffiths (Atlantic Publishing)
Great Olympic Moments, by Sir Steve Redgrave (Headline)
Mountain High: Europe's 50 Greatest Cycle Climbs, by Daniel Friebe and Pete Goding (Quercus)            
The Talksport 100 Greatest British Sporting Legends, by Bill Burrows with Tom Bailey (Simon & Schuster)
When Boxing Was Boxing, by Adam Powley (Haynes Publishing)
Wimbledon – Visions of the Championships, by Bob Martin and Ian Hewitt (Vision Sports Publishing)


Motorsports Book of the Year


Audi R8 - WSC Giants, by Ian Wagstaff (Veloce Publishing)
Driven by Desire - The Desiré Wilson Story, by Alan Wilson (Veloce Publishing)
Driving on the Edge: The Art and Science of Race Driving, by Michael Krumm (Icon Publishing)
McLaren - The Wins, by David Tremayne (Coterie Press)
Porsche at Le Mans: Sixty Years of Porsche Participation in the World's Greatest Motor Race, by Glen Smale (Haynes Publishing)
Ultimate E-type - The Competition Cars, by Philip Porter (Porter Press International)


New Writer of the Year


Among the Fans: From the Ashes to the Arrows, a Year of Watching the Watchers, by Patrick Collins (Wisden)
Can't Swim, Can't Ride, Can't Run: My Triathlon Journey from Common Man to Ironman, by Andy Holgate (Know the Score Books)
Fred Trueman: The Authorised Biography, by Chris Waters (Aurum)
Higgy: Matches, Microphones and MS, by Alastair Hignell  (Bloomsbury)
Sporting Chancer: One Man's Journey to Take On the World, by Ed Hawkins (Know the Score Books)
The Ghost Runner: The Tragedy of the Man They Couldn't Stop, by Bill Jones (Mainstream)


Rugby Book of the Year


Engage: The Fall and Rise of Matt Hampson, by Paul Kimmage (Simon & Schuster)
Higgy: Matches, Microphones and MS, by Alastair Hignell (Bloomsbury)
Joking Apart: My Autobiography, by Donncha O'Callaghan (Transworld Ireland)
Jonny: My Autobiography, by Jonny Wilkinson (Headline)
Southern Comfort: The Story of Borders Rugby, by Neil Drysdale (Birlinn)
The Treasures of International Rugby Union, by Richard Bath (Carlton Books)


Best Publicity Campaign


A Life Too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke, by Ronald Reng - Fiona Murphy at Vintage
I'm not really here: A Life of Two Halves, by Paul Lake - Charlotte Bush & Philippa Cotton at Cornerstone
Jonny: My Autobiography, by Jonny Wilkinson - Helena Towers at Headline
Racing Through The Dark: The Fall and Rise of David Millar, by David Miller - Angela McMahon at Orion
RUN! 26.2 Stories of Blisters and Bliss, by Dean Karnazes - Clare Drysdale at Allen & Unwin
Why We Run, by Robin Harvie - Lyndsey Ng at John Murray


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