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Between the Lines, by Victoria Pendleton: New autobiography will reveal Victoria's secrets

TRENDING...Olympic Gold



Team GB's Olympic gold rush will have spin-off benefits for the sports book industry with publishers and retailers eager to give high visibility to any gold medal stories they can push between now and the Christmas sales peak.

Among the first to hit the shelves will be cyclist Victoria Pendleton's autobiography Between the Lines, on which she has been working with Donald McRae, a writer who has twice won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award.

Due out on September 13 in the United Kingdom, Between the Lines: The Autobiography -- published by HarperSport -- promises to describe in 'searingly honest detail' a career of highs and lows and controversies that has just ended, following Pendleton's decision to retire at the end of London 2012.

It was a victorious finale for Pendleton, who failed to retain the track cycling sprint crown she won in the velodrome in Beijing but did claim her second Olympic gold in the keirin.

Yet a career that also brought her nine World championship wins as well as Commonwealth and European titles did not always run smooth.  She found herself at the centre of controversy when she revealed she was in a relationship with her coach, Scott Gardner, and more than once wanted to quit the sport as physical and mental pressures took their toll.

Donald McRae, whose interviews in the Guardian have become required reading, was part of that newspaper's team at London 2012.  He won the William Hill prize in 1996 for his book about boxing, Dark Trade, and in 2002 for Black and White: The Untold Story of Joe Louis and Jesse Owens.

Pre-order Between the Lines: The Autobiography (HarperSport)

In the meantime...

Sir Chris Hoy's story will need an update but the journey from boyhood to triple Olympic champion in Beijing is covered in Chris Hoy: The Autobiography (HarperSport), while Hoy's rise is at the centre of Richard Moore's excellent study of the track cycling revolution in Great Britain.

In Heroes, Villains and Velodromes (HarperSport), Moore shadowed Hoy for an entire season, in which he gained an unembellished insight into the mind of a World and Olympic champion. He was also afforded unprecedented levels of access to key players behind the scenes in British cycling, including top coaches, psychiatrists and doctors.

More cycling books

Richard Moore is also the author of:

Sky's the Limit: Wiggins and Cavendish -- the Quest to Conquer the Tour de France(HarperSport)

Slaying the Badger: LeMond, Hinault and the Greatest Ever Tour de France (Yellow Jersey)

and In Search of Robert Millar (HarperSport)

as well as

The Dirtiest Race in History: Ben Johnson, Carl Lewis and the Olympic 100m Final(Wisden Sports Writing)

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