FANTASTIC SPORTING LIFE
LEAP OF FAITH
by Frankie Dettori (HarperCollins £20, 320 pp)
You don’t have to know how to ride to love this fabulous book, but it helps if you love horses. Dettori’s passion for the animals he rides so brilliantly illuminates this memoir. And he had some mounts, too: Enable, Golden Horn, Stradivarius — they were all stars, and he writes about them all with a lover’s tenderness.
But there’s much more than simply horse racing here. In an autobiography as thrilling as any photo-finish, and as compelling as Frankie’s riding skills, he writes with searing honesty about his ban for cocaine, the terrifying moment his plane crashed and burst into flames, and his falling-out with the all-powerful Godolphin stable.
He’s also funny at joshing with Queen Elizabeth and even reveals where Lester Piggott took him. Clue. It was quite painful.
Roger Alton has rounded up a selection of this year’s best books for sports fans – including Leap Of Faith by Frankie Dettori (pictured)
ROGER FEDERER: THE MASTER: A BRILLIANT CAREER
by Christopher Clarey (John Murray £20, 432 pp)
The great ‘Fed’ can, for some bizarre reason, be a bit of a Marmite figure, with some benighted folk unable to appreciate his brilliance. The title of Clarey’s exhaustive book will tell you where he stands, though.
Clarey has covered tennis for the New York Times for donkey’s years and has interviewed Federer countless times.
It is a big mystery how this great athlete managed to stay at the top of his sport for so many years. The answer appears to have been focus, planning, determination, and grit. His life seems full of laughter, friends, family, and fellow-pros who make sure that he doesn’t feel tired.
You can learn everything that you might have missed by doing a thorough research. ‘Not as easy as you think it is, but I’ll try,’ he tells them.
BELIEVE GOOD. LOVE BRIAN.
by Craig Bromfield (Mudlark £16.99, 320 pp)
Think you can’t face another book about Brian Clough? Well, think again, because you really can’t do without this one. Make sure you have tissues on hand.
Craig Bromfield, who was only 11, was raised in Sunderland in an abusive and impoverished household. He and Aaron were almost befriended nearly on a whim after they met the Nottingham Forest legend while collecting money for him.
Clough took the boys into his family — and his beautiful house in Quarndon, ‘like something in Dallas’ — and became Craig’s surrogate father for the next few years, giving him shelter and a unique environment to grow up in.
An inspirational and moving story, and, what’s more, it’s all true.
Michael Holding (pictured), shares his story with some of the most famous sports personalities in Why We Kneel and How We Rise
BE LONGING
by Alun Wyn Jones (Macmillan £20, 336 pp)
There’s no Welshman (or woman) who doesn’t worship at the shrine of Alun Wyn Jones, the most capped rugby player in history, long-time captain of rugby-mad Wales as well as the British Lions, and one of the greatest, and seemingly most indestructible, players in history.
Here is the autobiography a man who works: Rugby is his occupation. . . He has no plans to retire. As he says, very sensibly: ‘No one counts how many kitchens a carpenter has fitted, or tells a plumber to pack it in when he’s done a certain number of bathrooms. Keep working, keep trying to improve.’
His teammates have followed him everywhere, as you can see. The glory, however, is here as well: walking out of Cardiff to the cheers and cheers of a packed arena with the knowledge that many more people are watching at home.
The book also reflects his reserved nature as both a man, and player. When he returns home after breaking All Black Richie McCaw’s record of caps, his long-suffering wife, Anwen, has some champagne ready. ‘Let’s leave it till tomorrow,’ he says [Wales had been beaten, at home, by Scotland]. ‘A tense evening that one,’ he admits.
WHY DO WE KNEEL? HOW DO WE RISE
by Michael Holding (Simon & Schuster £20, 320 pp)
After former Yorkshire player Azeem Rafiq’s painful recollections this autumn, the issue of racism has dominated coverage of cricket. A rain break during the Test match between England & West Indies in lockdown, 2020 was perhaps a more important event.
Following the death of George Floyd, West Indian legend fast bowler Michael Holding launched into an explosive monologue about racism, bigotry, and insults he’d seen all his adult life. It wasn’t over.
It is perhaps the most significant book of the year and one of its most compelling. Holding shares his story together with many of the world’s most iconic sports stars: Usain Bolt, tennis champ Naomi Osaka, Michael Johnson, Makhaya Ntini, the first Black African to play cricket for South Africa, Thierry Henry and many more. If anything will change the way we see the world it is this — the sports book of the year.
TOO MANY RAISONS TO LIVE by Rob Burrow (Macmillan £20, 304 pp)
TOO MANY REASONS TO LIVE
by Rob Burrow (Macmillan £20, 304 pp)
If you can read this wonderful book without a tear in your eye then you’re a stronger person than I am. Burrow was only 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighed less that 11 st. He is one the most accomplished players in rugby league’s history.
However, his speed, agility, strength, and courage made him a legend in the sport. He represented Leeds, England and Britain.
After his life was turned upside down in December 2019, when he was diagnosed as having motor neurone disorder, he needed more courage. They might be hard men, but his teammates are generous, loyal, and big-hearted.
A second inspiring tale, with many memories of his childhood sweetheart Lindsey and friends, which he wed in 2006. ‘I want to keep fighting till my last breath,’ he says.
ONE: MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY
ONE: MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Peter Schmeichel (Hodder £20, 416 pp)
by Peter Schmeichel (Hodder £20, 416 pp)
This is much more than the usual footballer’s life story, thanks no doubt to the skills of the highly respected football writer and co-author Jonathan Northcroft.
He’s sensitive, Peter Schmeichel; not just an awesome goalkeeper, but a lover of jazz, family (his son is a Premier League-winning keeper, too) and capable also of dropping names such as the philosopher Kierkegaard as he reflects on his legacy.
It’s warm, frank and conversational in tone; you could be sharing a beer with him in one of his favourite Copenhagen bars.
Rated the best goalkeeper in the world for years, he takes us behind the scenes of Manchester United’s epic last-minute Champions’ League victory in 1999, as well as all the other soccer triumphs with United, and Denmark.
Off the pitch he’s also got a remarkable story about his early life: he nearly died at 15 and had a stormy relationship with his father, who was a Polish jazz pianist, an alcoholic and a spy. Terrific.
WHISTLE BLOWER – MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY
by Mark Clattenburg (Headline £20, 336 pp)
WHISTLE BLOWER: MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Mark Clattenburg (Headline £20, 336 pp)
Even those who thought Clattenburg was a good referee would agree he wasn’t a man burdened by self-doubt, and this memoir, written with the Mail’s Craig Hope, is a breezy cruise through Clatts’ highlights, which are, by his own estimate, numerous.
Eventually, with his tattoos and an eye on his public approval, he became almost a parody of the ‘celebrity referee’.
Now he can let rip with a few two-footed tackles: other refs are ‘snide’ or a ‘boring f***er’, a senior official is a ‘slippery, sly toff’, the current crop of Premier League refs ‘has never been weaker’.
If you have ever enjoyed swearing at the man in black (and who hasn’t?) If you have ever enjoyed swearing at the black man (and who doesn’t?) this book will be of interest to you. It is worth reading, even if only to find out about Clattenburg’s convincing of Jordan Henderson (England captain) to insert a sock into the boot after Henderson had given Clattenburg a lot of abuse. He threatened to tell the midfielder’s Mum. Henderson was able to restrain himself afterward. No wonder.
BARCA: RISE AND FLIGHT OF A CLUB THAT BUILT MODERN FOOTBALL
BARCA: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE CLUB THAT BUILT MODERN FOOTBALL by Simon Kuper (Short Books £20, 384 pp)
by Simon Kuper (Short Books £20, 384 pp)
Kuper was a brilliant and thoughtful writer on football for a long time. The almost Shakespearean narrative of the rise and fall of the world’s most exciting and inspirational club makes a suitably epic tapestry for his talents.
The story is told through the eyes of three extraordinary icons: Johan Cruyff (a chain-smoking Dutch genius who revolutionized football as a Barcelona player, and then later as a manager); Pep Guardiola who took football coaching to new heights in Spain, Germany, and Manchester and Lionel Messi who was the greatest player of all time, but whose incredible skills were a magnet for fans for many years, and whose staggering salary ultimately brought down the club.
This is an enthralling account of ambition, remarkable ability, and politics, beautifully told. infighting.
ALL IN ON AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Billie Jean King (Viking £20, 496 pp)
ALL IN: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
by Billie Jean King (Viking £20, 496 pp)
If anyone can be said to have changed the face of their sport (and much else besides) it’s Billie Jean. A supremely gifted tennis player, as a youngster she came up against the wall of patronising sexism that dominated the sport (‘These girls would be much happier if they settled down,’ opined the U.S. star Stan Smith).
Forced to set up a women-only pro tour (the WTA), she became an icon for women everywhere, beating the ageing player Bobby Riggs in straight sets in the infamous ‘Battle of the Sexes’, and a multiple Grand Slam winner.
Struggling with her sexuality, too, she didn’t formally come out as gay until she was in her 50s, and subsequently began dating the South African tennis player Ilana Kloss.
King, a passionate campaigner and activist for LGBT and Gender Rights as well as Feminism and Black Lives Matter is now King. A compelling story of a sporting legend and an inspirational human being, it’s a moving love story, too.
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