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Former tennis player Jimmy Connors, publicists Karen Geary and Rebecca Mundy, and retailer Waterstones were among the winners at the British Sport Book Awards 2014.
Connors’ autobiography The Outsider (Bantam Press) won the Autobiography/Biography of the Year category, beating books including Stillness & Speed by Dennis Bergkamp with David Winner (Simon & Schuster), Running by Ronnie O’Sullivan(Orion) and Dreams Do Come True by Katherine Grainger (Andre Deutsch).
Connors said: “Writing the book was hard but it was a real pleasure and an experience I’ll never forget. It is great to receive this award.”
Waterstones was named Sports Book Retailer of the Year at the awards, which were hosted by cricket commentator Jonathan Agnew at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London tonight (21st May).
Hodder & Stoughton’s publicity director Geary and publicist Mundy won the Best Publicity Campaign award for their work on Sir Alex Ferguson’s autobiography.
Michael Calvin’s The Nowhere Men (Century), which looks at the world of footballs’ talent spotters, won the Football Book of the Year, beating books including Messi by Guillem Balague (Orion) and I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovic by Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Penguin).
In the other sporting categories, The Great Tamasha by James Astill (Bloomsbury), an account of cricket and corruption in modern India, won Cricket Book of the Year; Henry Cecil: Trainer of Genius by Brough Scott (Racing Post Books) won Horse Racing Book of the Year; and Simon Halliday won Rugby Book of the Year for his autobiography City Centre (Troubador).
Harriet Tuckey won the Outstanding Sports Writing Award for Everest: The First Ascent (Rider), about her father, Griffith Pugh; and the New Writer of the Year award was won by Tim Lewis for his story of the Rwandan cycling team, Land of Second Chances (Yellow Jersey).
Incredible Waves: An Appreciation of Perfect Surf by Chris Power (Orca Publiscations) won the Best Illustrated Book of the Year.
The winners of the eight book categories will now be put to an online public vote to determine the Overall British Sports Book of the Year.