Irish book The Racket, about the career of Irish tennis player Conor Niland, has been nominated for William Hill Sports Book of the Year.
The book, written by Niland himself in collaboration with The 42′s Gavin Cooney, was described in a review by The Irish Times as a “lonely tennis locker room conveyed with a deft touch”.
The William Hill Sports Book of the Year award is dedicated to rewarding excellence in sports writing and was first awarded in 1989. This year, the prize for winning the award will be £30,000 (€35,848).
Kelly Holmes is also among the six authors shortlisted for the award. Holmes’ memoir Unique provides a fascinating insight into the British athlete’s private life, from her early career in the military to reaching the pinnacle of her sport, while concealing her identity as a gay woman until publicly coming out in 2022 at the age of 52.
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Unique is one of three books penned by female authors to make the final selection ahead of the 36th awards, along with These Heavy Black Bones by former British swimming champion Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell and My Beautiful Sisters by Afghanistan women’s football team co-founder and captain Khalida Popal. These Heavy Black Bones tells the story of Ajulu-Bushell, the first Black woman to swim for Great Britain, with My Beautiful Sisters highlighting Popal’s courageous work uncovering sexual abuse in Afghan football as a refugee in Europe, against the backdrop of the recapture of Kabul by the Taliban in August 2021.
Continuing the wide-ranging selection of titles is David Peace’s Munichs, which tells the history of Manchester United in the years following the 1958 Munich air crash and how the football club slowly rose from the ashes.
Rounding off the final six contenders is When I Passed The Statue Of Liberty I Became Black by Harry Edward, a posthumous publication of the memoir of Britain’s first Black Olympic medal winner, who lived on both sides of the Atlantic during the civil rights movement in the mid-20th century.
Last year, the award was won by Good for a Girl: My Life Running in a Man’s World by Lauren Fleshman. The winner will be announced on Tuesday, November 19th.
Shortlist:
- These Heavy Black Bones - Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell
- When I Passed The Statue of Liberty I Became Black - Harry Edward
- My Beautiful Sisters – Khalida Popal
- Unique – Kelly Holmes
- Munichs – David Peace
- The Racket – Conor Niland
