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William Hill announces Sports Book of the Year long list

By Matt | October 2, 2008

BOOKMAKER William Hill has announced the long list for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year – the world’s most valuable and prestigious book award for writing about sport.

Novelist Haruki Murakami, former racing driver Jackie Stewart and sometime England cricket captain Marcus Trescothick are among the thirteen runners and riders in contention for the book award, which is known in betting and literary circles alike as the “Bookie Prize”.

The Sports Book of the Year long list will be whittled down to a shortlist to be announced on Thursday, 30 October, with the winner announced on Monday, 24 November 2008, at the London Piccadilly branch of Waterstones. The winning author will receive a £20,000 cash prize and a £2,000 free bet with William Hill.

This year’s award is the twentieth William Hill Sports Book of the Year award and will be judged by a distinguished panel including sports writer and BBC broadcaster John Inverdale and sports journalists Danny Kelly, Hugh McIlvanney and Alyson Rudd.

Hills spokesman Graham Sharpe said, “We have a wonderful selection of long list contenders for the twentieth annual award, and with record prize money on offer it will be the most eagerly anticipated occasion yet.”

Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland - a novel about cricket in post-9/11 New York - is a surprising omission from the list, coming shortly after it was similarly dropped from the Booker Prize shortlist despite having been made favourite in Hills’ betting odds.

The full longlist is: