For the past 30 years the Sports Book of the Year has brought joy, sometimes bewilderment, and quite often a spike in sales as it forced a neglected genre to raise its game
There was a time, a generation or so ago, when high street bookshops were a wasteland for sportswriting. The entire subject was usually relegated to a single shelf in a dusty corner, with slabs of the Rothmans Football Yearbook or the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack manspreading next to turgid autobiographies and regurgitated annuals. Those who wanted to learn chess, bridge or squash were well catered for. Everyone else, not so much.
But then came the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award, which will name its 30th winner on Tuesday, and suddenly everything became more electric – and eclectic.
Written by Sean Ingle
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/nov/26/william-hill-sports-book-of-the-year-sean-ingle under the title “William Hill award has done so much to help sports writing leap off the page | Sean Ingle”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.