Sports Books

The Guardian's top sports books

The top ten is heavy on boxing. So I've made a note to see if they're available to reserve at the library. Otherwise, I was surprised to have ticked so many off the list.


This Sporting Life.

I read this a long time ago. A tough, gritty novel about one of the toughest and grittiest sports, Rugby League. A snapshot of life in the north of England in (I think) the 1960s. Unusual among the sport book lists, a novel rather than a biography or factual reporting.


The Art of Captaincy.

Mike Brearly was (and is) unusual in so many ways. Certain to be the last captain to retain a place in a test cricket team through his ability as a captain more than through his merits as a player. All nations now adopt the Aussie way: pick the team, then pick the skipper.

Educated to some ridiculous level, cerebral to some ridiculous extent (there were rumours of months spent in caves in the Himalayas meditating about brainy stuff), he got the best from everyone, effortlessly.


The Boys of Summer.

An absolutely beautiful book. You don't need to be a baseball fan, or even a sports fan. The author (I'm not checking this, so names, teams and details could be wrong) was a reporter following the Red Sox in the days when they pioneered including black players. There's background, the story unfolds, and then the author sets off to find and interview the players long into their retirement. Fascinating and enthralling writing.


Paper Lion.

George Plimpton. Novelist, poet, and sportswriter, goes undercover into the Detroit Lions summer training camp as (allegedly) some sort of fourth in line backup quarterback. It didn't take long for the players to work him out. Under-fit, underweight, under-muscled, older and slower than anyone for miles around, there's then the double-bluff where the players don't let on that they know there's a cuckoo in the nest, as he wins their trust.

There's real respect in the end and love and friendship between journalist and prey.


Beyond a Boundary.

On my to do list. Cricket, like so much sport, is more than just a game. It's long overdue for the education system to abandon the teaching of the out of date, discredited, make-believe that is religion, and start ramming home to the non-athletes and non-interested, that sport is absolutely central to society, community, and, as much as anything else, can show humanity at its very best.


The Blizzard and The Nightwatchman.

I'm on a Nightwatchman catch up. Long article football and cricket magazines, both full of wit and humour, insight and intelligence.